RECON 


EL  SUPREMO 


EL    SUPREMO 

A  ROMANCE  OF  THE   GREAT 
DICTATOR  OF  PARAGUAY 


BY 


EDWARD  LUCAS  WHITE 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 


COPTBIOHT,  19U, 
BT 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


Ftr.'f  printing October     1015. 

Second  printing December  1J16. 

Thin  printing January   1917. 

Fourth  printing . February   191.7. 

Fifth  printing March        lit  11. 

Sixth  printing October,      191 7. 

Seventh  printing September,  1919. 

Ei^ftf.h  printing April,         1922. 

Ninth  pricing April,          19£3. 

Tenth  printing September,   1926. 


print*!  fn  the  Onftcd  States  of  Hmerlca 


To  the  Scandalized  and  Indignant  Ghosts 

of 
JOHN  PARISH  ROBERTSON 

and 

WILLIAM  PARISH  ROBERTSON 
this  Book  is  ironically  Dedicated. 


796OJJ2 


CONTENTS 


BOOK  I.   FEANCIA. 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.  A  CHANCE  MEETING 3 

IE.  THE  UNSPEAKABLE  NAME 12 

IH.  IMPROMPTUS  AND  PELOTITAS 24 

IV.  WARNINGS        38    , 

V.  THE  WINE-SHOP  OF  DR.  BARGAS 51  / 

VI.  THE  MALCONTENTS 63 

VII.  BATHING  BY  MOONLIGHT       75 

VIII.  DON  BERNARDO  VELASCO       87 

IX.  THE  LAIR  OF  THE  LION 102 

X.  THE  PYTHONESS       114 

XL  CONSPIRACY 127 

BOOK  II.    CECILIA. 

XII.  THE  LIBRARY        145 

XIII.  THE  PERMIT 160 

XIV.  THE  PRISONS 176 

XV.  DONA  CECILIA 190 

XVI.  ST.  JOHN'S  DAY 205 

XVII.  THE  FIESTA  AT  ITAPUA 218 

XVIII.  MOONLIT  SURPRISES 229 

XIX.  THE  INSTALMENT 241 

XX.  GOLD  COMBS  IN  CHURCH 256 

XXI.  SERVICE  BY  EDICT 270 

XXII.  RIDES  AND  PARTRIDGES 287 


CONTENTS 

BOOK  in.  VENTURA. 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

XXIII.  LOCALITIES  AND  CHARACTERS 309 

XXIV.  A  FLASH  OF  LIGHTNING 325 

XXV.     FLEAS  AND  ECLIPSES 340 

XXVI.     THE  LISTS       357 

XXVII.     THE  YERBALES 374 

XXVIII.     PRINCE  BELTRANT 387 

XXIX.     TOBACCO  AND  IRON       400 

XXX.     THE  REVOLUTIONISTS        416 

XXXI.     CANOES        430 

XXXII.     THE  PENINSULA       445 

XXXIII.  CATARACTS        461 

XXXIV.  EMPRESS  VENTURA       476 

BOOK  IV.   BELTRAN. 

XXXV.     GAUCHOS      .    . 499 

XXXVI.     HIDES 511 

XXXVII.     JUANITA       523 

XXXVEII.     IBIRAI 539 

XXXIX.     THE  CONVENTION 553 

XL.     EL  PERPETUO       565 

XLI.     RIDDLES 582 

XLII.     DISSOLUTION         593 

XLIII.     AMNESTY 610 

XLIV.     COMPUNCTIONS 625 

XLV.     THE  PROFILE       .     .  643 

XLVI.     INTERCESSION        656 

XLVII.     DUST  AND  ASHES 665 

XLVIII.  CECILY  682 


Plan  of  Asuncion  in  1809      .......    page  310 


PREFACE 

INDUBITABLY  one  of  the  greatest  men  this  world  has 
ever  produced,  and,  without  exception,  the  most  won 
derful  man  ever  born  in  either  North  or  South  America, 
was  Dr.  Jose  Gaspar  Eodriguez  de  Francia,  Dictator  of 
Paraguay  from  1813  to  184.0.  Moreover,  he  was  not  only  a 
great  and  extraordinary  man,  but  a  most  interesting  man. 
The  records  of  his  personality,  doings  and  sayings,  with 
the  legends  handed  down  concerning  him,  amount  to  a 
treasury  of  material  for  what  newspaper  men  call  "good 
copy. ' ' 

Quite  as  truly  is  the  period  of  his  first  dictatorship  a 
gold-mine  of  local  colour.  Asuncion  in  1816  abounded  in 
striking  characters,  and  was  the  scene  of  numerous  roman 
tic  occurrences  and  dramatic  events,  projected  on  a  singu 
larly  bizarre  background,  altogether  unmatchable  in  human 
history.  For  the  colonial  aristocracy,  proud,  courtly  and 
clad  in  gorgeous  velvets  and  silks,  failed  to  realise  that 
their  day  had  passed  and  struggled,  for  a  while,  against 
the  established  republic.  The  interaction  of  the  viceregal 
society  and  the  new  government  produced  some  startling 
contrasts. 

Francia 's  individuality  was  so  bewildering  and  peculiar 
that  any  one  reading  of  him  for  the  first  time  is  likely  to 
imagine  him  invented  bodily.  He  is  here  portrayed  just  as 
history  and  legend  have  depicted  him.  Only  his  relation 
to  the  plot  is  fiction,  and,  even  there,  every  episode  in  which 
he  appears  is  founded  on  something  recorded  or  traditional. 
The  anecdotes  related  of  him  are  scarcely  anywhere  modi 
fied. 

The  minor  characters  are  mostly  also  historical.  Only 
Hawthorne,  Cecilia  and  Beltran,  the  Mayorgas  and  the 
Velardes  are  fictitious.  Don  Atanacio  Cabanas,  Sergeant 
Peter  Campbell,  Don  Francisco  Candioti,  Don  Jose  Carisi- 
mo,  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda,  Don  Paseual  Echagiie,  Don 
Juan  Jose  Francia,  Don  Pedro  Francia,  Don  Larios  Galvan, 


x  PREFACE 

Don  Joaquin  Lopez,  Don  Estanislao  Machain,  Fray  Ig- 
nacio  Maestre,  Don  Fernando  de  la  Mora,  Don  Antonio 
Recalde,  Don  Domingo  Rodriguez,  Don  Jacinto  Ruiz,  Fray 
Dalmacio  Taboada,  Don  Bernardo  Velasco,  Leonardo  Vera 
and  Don  Fulgencio  Yegros,  as  well  as  Dona  Juanita  Bian- 
quet,  Doiia  Encarnacion  Figueredo,  Dona  Juana  Isquibel 
and  Senorita  Angelica  Recalde  are  as  authentic  as  their 
names  and  were  as  real  as  Abascal,  Alvear,  Artigas,  Bel- 
grano,  Herrera,  Perrichon,  Pezuela,  John  Postlethwaite 
Esquire,  San  Martin,  Ramirez,  La  Serna,  Consul  Robert 
Ponsonby  Staples,  and  Mister  George  Washington  Tucker- 
man. 

Equally  real  were  Banfi,  Orrego  and  Soloaga,  Senora 
Baiz,  Barbeito,  Bedoya,  Casal,  Chilaber,  Decoud,  Domeque, 
Figueredo,  Gomez,  La  Guardia,  Lsasi,  Jovellanos,  Mare- 
cos,  de  Maria,  Somellera,  and  Zelaya;  Doctors  Baiguer, 
Bargas,  Dominguez,  Narvaez  and  Sabola;  Generals  Cabal- 
lero,  Gamarra  and  Zevallos ;  Colonel  Guerreros ;  Lieutenant 
Iturbe;  Padres  Bogarin,  Caballero,  Caiiete,  Loisaga,  Mon- 
tiel  and  Reloyos,  as  well  as  Bishop  de  Panes.  The  first 
names  of  these  characters,  however,  it  has  been  found 
advisable  to  alter:  one  can  hardly  find  one's  way  through 
a  history  where  everybody  is  addressed  and  mentioned  by 
his  first  name,  and  where  only  one  man  out  of  twenty  has 
escaped  being  christened  Juan  or  Jose;  in  a  romance  any 
one  would  become  hopelessly  confused. 

Dr.  Parlett's  first  name  was  not  Thomas,  but,  manifestly, 
the  right  name  for  him  was  Tom.  Since  there  is  no  record 
of  El  Pelado's  name  nor  of  El  Zapo's  last  name,  they  have 
been  supplied.  As  for  the  pompous  and  tautological  Secre 
tary  of  State,  both  his  real  names  were  distressingly  usual. 
They  have  therefore  been  altered  to  others  more  suitable 
to  his  personality. 

Faithfully  presented  are  the  conditions  of  an  anomalous 
period,  when,  for  a  brief  three  years  after  Paraguay  became 
independent,  her  strange  colony  of  Spanish  aristocrats, 
isolated  amid  wildernesses  in  their  affluent  Arcadia,  with 
their  exotic  social  atmosphere,  gaudy  attire  and  exquisite 
manners,  plotted  and  schemed  to  overthrow  the  long-suf 
fering,  stern  and  implacable  despot  who  was  to  exterminate 
them. 


BOOK    I 
FRANCIA 


EL  SUPREMO 

CHAPTER  I 

A  CHANCE  MEETING 

fTHHE  Octoroon  girl  was  weeping  so  unrestrainedly,  her 
J.  face  shining  with  tears,  her  hands  swinging  at  her 
sides,  her  whole  frame  shaken  by  her  sobs,  that  the  stranger, 
halting  in  the  thickest  shade  of  one  of  the  bigger  orange 
trees,  turned  and  gazed  after  her.  His  interest  was  aroused 
not  only  by  the  fury  of  her  emotion  and  by  the  singular 
obviousness  of  her  blended  grief  and  rage,  but  also  by  the 
perception  that,  in  her  normal  state,  she  must  be  a  notably 
comely  creature.  He  watched  her  white-clad  figure  as  she 
half  staggered,  half  ran,  down  the  middle  of  the  uneven 
road-way,  until  she  hurled  herself  to  her  TigM:  vrito  the 
cross-street  up  which  he  had  just  come,  and  passed  out  of 
his  view.  ' : ,; 

When  he  wheeled  to  continue  on  his  way  he  was'  aware 
of  a  rotund  person  approaching  him,  the  only  living  thing 
in  sight  save  here  and  there  a  cow,  close  under  the  shade 
of  the  prickly-pear  hedges. 

So,  in  the  blinding  glare  of  cloudless  morning,  under 
the  dark,  overarching  orange  trees,  on  a  street,  narrow, 
dirty,  and  anything  but  straight,  they  met.  The  tall,  well- 
knit  young  man  in  quiet,  close-fitting  brown,  was  small- 
faced,  with  clear,  grey-blue  eyes,  a  hooked  nose,  and  pink, 
boyish  cheeks.  The  man,  rubicund  all  over  an  ample  coun 
tenance,  his  eyes  watery  grey,  his  surface  suety,  his  outline 
pear-shaped,  wore  a  loose,  flapping  suit  of  soiled,  spotty, 
snuff-streaked  black. 

As  they  drew  near  each  other  the  waddling,  middle-aged 
fat  man  spoke,  spoke  in  English : 

' '  By  your  trousers  you  are  by  way  of  being  a  European ; 
by  your  face  you  are  no  Latin;  you  look  as  if  you  might 
peak  English." 

'I  do, "  the  young  man  answered  with  a  smile- 

3 


EL   SUPREMO 

says  I'm  drunk  an  hour  after  I  wake?"  the  fat 
man  demanded.  ' '  Could  a  drunken  man  recognise  a  Saxon 
half  a  cable  length  away?  I  knew  you  for  what  you  are. 
You're  a  stranger  in  Asuncion.  There  are  too  :£ew  of  us 
here  and  we  ought  to  hang  together.  My  name 's  Parlett — 
Doctor  Parlett  when  soher,  and  the  best  surgeon  in  all 
South  America;  Tom  Parlett  when  drunk,  and  that's 
of  tener,  and  drunk  in  the  gutter  at  that. ' ' 

'  *  My  name  is  William  Hawthorne, ' '  the  young  man  said. 
' '  At  your  service,  Doctor. ' ' 

"And  I  at  yours,  I  am  sure/'  said  the  doctor.  "By 
your  voice  you  are  a  Yankee." 

"Born  in  Massachusetts,"  Hawthorne  confessed. 

"Almost  anywhere  else  on  earth  I'd  curse  you  for  a 
damned  rebel,"  spoke  the  doctor  cheerfully,  "and  pass 
you  by.  Here  in  this  damned  still-born  abortion  of  a  new 
nation,  this  misbegotten  Paraguay,  every  foreigner  needs 
to  stand  by  every  other ;  needs  it  more  pressingly  and  more 
bitterly  than  I  trust  you'll  ever  know.  You're  in  luck  to 
-.meet'.  m'e[. :  I  '11  give  you  warning  in  time  of  how  to  conduct 
yourself*.  ''What  do  I  care  if  England  and  your  fool  make- 
Believe;  country '  are  at  war  ?  You  and  I  here  are  brothers, 
•a"iid>*wG  oree'd' 'to' -be.  How  goes  the  war  for  that  matter?" 

"The  war  is  over,"  Hawthorne  said;  "the  treaty  was 
signed  a  year  ago  last  December,  and  peace  declared  at 
once.  The  news  has  been  a  little  slow  reaching  the  frigates 
cruising  in  these  seas. ' ' 

"It  had  not  reached  Asuncion  till  you  came,"  said  Par 
lett.  "Two-year-old  news  is  no  rarity  here  since  Artigas 
and  his  ruffians  began  to  rampage  up  and  down  Entre  Illos 
and  the  Banda  Oriental.  How  long  were  you  on  the 
river  ? ' ' 

* '  Four  months  and  two  days  from  Buenos  Aires, ' '  Haw 
thorne  answered. 

1 1  Sticking  on  sand-bars,  eh  ? "  laughed  the  doctor.  ' '  The 
river  is  enough  to  drive  any  man  to  drink,  coming  up. 
I  don't  remember  much  of  it  myself — drunk  all  the  while. 
"What  did  you  find  to  pass  away  the  time  besides  watching 
the  vaqueano  and  his  Indian  crew?" 

"I  had  fellow-passengers,"  said  Hawthorne. 

"Indeed,"  Parlett  puffed.    "What  vessel  were  yo 
and  what  kind  of  a  vessel  ? ' ' 


A    CHANCE    MEETING  5 

"A  brig,"  Hawthorne  told  him,  "called  Nuestra  Senora 
del  Carmen." 

"One  of  Isasi's,"  the  doctor  commented.  "His  are  the 
best  on  the  river ;  the  best  found  and  the  best  sailed.  Who 
were  your  fellow-passengers?  We  are  all  one  family  at 
Asuncion,  we  gentry,  and  new  arrivals  interest  us  all." 

"There  was  Don  Beltran  Jaray "  Hawthorne  began. 

The  doctor  broke  in  excitedly. 

1 1  You  don 't  say  so !  His  grandmother  will  be  out  of  the 
body  to  see  him  again.  I've  been  teasing  the  old  girl, 
telling  her  she  'd  never  live  to  welcome  him  home.  She 's  a 
bird,  is  old  Dona  Juana  Isquibel!" 

"I  have  heard  of  her  from  her  grandson,"  Hawthorne 
interjected  precisely. 

The  doctor  ignored  the  tone  of  rebuke. 

"Who  were  the  others?"  he  enquired. 

"Seiiorita  Ventura  Velarde,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"By  Jove!"  Parlett  exclaimed.  "Beltran  and  Ventura 
on  the  same  ship!  The  only  two  Paraguayans  who  ever 
went  to  Europe  and  came  back !  This  is  news !  You  must 
have  had  an  agreeable  voyage !  What  courage  for  Ventura 
to  chance  the  Artiguefios!  What  recklessness!  What  fool 
ishness!  And  had  she  no  duenna?" 

"She  had  indeed,"  Hawthorne  answered.  "Dona 
Juanita  Bianquet,  who  had  her  four  children  along.  ' ' 

"Ye  Gods!"  the  doctor  cried.  "Four  heroines  on  one 
ship.  Ventura  and  Juanita  and  the  two  little  girls!  This 
is  an  event.  No  vessel  with  a  woman  aboard  has  come  up 
since  the  fighting  broke  out  five  years  ago  next  September. 
I'll  be  glad  to  see  both.  Ventura's  father  is  the  richest 
man  in  Paraguay  and  related  to  half  Asuncion.  His  send 
ing  his  daughter  to  Spain  to  be  educated  has  been  the 
staple  topic  for  gossips  at  every  tertulia  I  've  attended  since 
I  came  here.  Whenever  conversation  flagged  some  old 
hen  would  pipe  up  about  the  folly  of  it,  and  its  being  ; 
flying  in  the  face  of  Providence.  I've  heard  of  Ventura  till 
I  know  her  well.  And  Bianquet  is  a  good  fellow  and  a  jolly 
companion.  We've  spent  a  considerable  share  of  our  time 
together.  He's  been  very  lonesome,  for  he's  fond  of  his 
wife  and  children.  He'll  be  wild.  He  had  no  idea  she 
would  try  to  join  him  here,  in  these  fierce  times.  You 
must  have  had  more  than  a  few  compensations  for  barra- 


EL   SUPREMO 

rcburas  and  starving  on  jerked  beef  between  cattle-purchases, 
even  at  four  months  of  it.  As  it  is  you're  two  months 
later  than  the  last  news  we  have  had.  Is  it  true  that 
jwe've  got  Boney?" 

"True  enough,"  said  Hawthorne. 

"And  where  is  he  now?"  Parlett  enquired,  his  filmy 
eyes  brightening. 

' t  On  St.  Helena,  under  guard  since  last  October, ' '  Haw 
thorne  replied. 

"What  and  where  is  St.  Helena?"  the  doctor  queried. 

"A  small  island,"  the  youth  answered,  "somewhere  on 
the  South  Atlantic,  off  the  coast  of  Africa.  He's  a  British 
prisoner  there  and  the  King's  frigates  patrol  the  sea  all 
about.  He's  there  for  life,  to  a  certainty.  He'll  never 
escape.  Europe  will  never  see  him  again." 

"And  it  was  Wesley  licked  him?"  Parlett  enquired. 
"And  all  in  one  battle?" 

"True  enough,"  Hawthorne  affirmed.  "One  great  bat 
tle,  in  the  low  countries,  at  a  place  called  Waterloo." 

"Good  job  for  Arthur  Wesley,"  the  doctor  commented. 
"We  were  fags  together  at  Eton.  Used  to  call  each  other 
Tommie  and  Artie.  Viscount  Wellesley,  I  suppose,  would 
never  stoop  to  recognize  me  now.  Do  you  know  you  look 
a  good  deal  like  him  ? ' ' 

"So  I  have  been  told  before,"  Hawthorne  smiled. 

"You're  like  him,"  Parlett  affirmed.  "Lucky  for  you 
if  you  are  one  hundredth  as  sharp.  You'll  need  sharpness 
here.  What  brings  you  to  Paraguay,  anyhow  ? ' ' 

' '  I  am  expecting  to  make  my  fortune  here, ' '  Hawthorne 
told  him. 

4 '  There  are  fortunes  to  be  made  here, ' '  Parlett  declared. 
"I'd  have  made  mine  ten  times  over  already  if  I  could 
keep  sober  and  hold  my  hand  from  play.    You  may  make 
a  fortune  indeed.    But  keep  out  of  politics  and  keep  your  . 
mouth  shut.     This  is  one  man 's  country  and  beware  how  * 
you  cross  him.    It  is  not  necessary  to  name  him ;  you  know 
the  man  I  mean." 

"Yes,"  said  Hawthorne.    "You  mean  Dr.  Francia." 

Parlett 's  crimson  face  turned  a  dull,  blotchy  brown.  He 
laid  a  bloated  hand  on  Hawthorne's  shoulder,  with  a 
solicitous,  protecting  gesture.  He  glanced  all  about  them. 

"There  you  go,"  he  said.    "No  sooner  had  I  told  you 


A    CHANCE    MEETING  7 

to  keep  your  mouth  shut  than  you  open  it.  Keep  your 
mouth  shut,  I  tell  you!  If  any  one  had  heard  you,  you 
would  have  been  as  good  as  dead  now.'-  Almost  any  one 
else  would  go  straight  and  tell  him,  and  he  is  Sheriff,  Lord 
Advocate,  Lord  Chancellor,  Generalissimo,  King,  Pope,  God 
and  owner  of  Paraguay.  There  never  has  been  an  autocrat 
like  him  on  earth.  He  is  the  most  redoubtable  man  alive. 
^Within  his  sphere  he  is  more  terrific  than  ever  Boney  was 
on  his  vaster  stage.  He  can  be  gentle,  considerate,  just  and 
generous,  and  often  is.  He  can  be  petty  and  vindictive  as 
a  stray  cur.  He  is  always  uncertain  and  generally  as 
unexpected  as  a  thunderbolt." 

The  fat  doctor  paused  for  very  lack  of  breath.  Haw 
thorne  looked  him  deliberately  up  and  down  from  his 
cocked  hat  to  his  silver-buckled  low  shoes  and  back  again. 

"You  fool,"  the  doctor  burst  out.  "You  think  I'm 
drunk  and  trying  to  scare  you  for  a  joke.  Mark  my  words, 
young  man.  If  you  are  ever  again  tempted  to  name  that 
name  fancy  yourself  on  the  banquillo  with  three  musket- 
muzzles  pointing  at  the  small  of  your  back ;  imagine  your 
self  listening  for  the  word  that  is  to  be  the  last  that  you 
are  ever  to  hear ;  conceive  what  you  would  give  then 
not  to  have  spoken  that  name,  and  don 't  speak  it. ' ' 

Hawthorne's  unperturbed,  supercilious  gaze  again  trav 
elled  over  the  doctor's  person  from  the  ground  up.  Into 
the  bleared,  shifting  eyes,  his  resolute,  boyish  eyes  looked 
with  a  sparkle  in  them  of  amused  incredulity.  A  knowing, 
condescending  smile  hovered  about  the  corners  of  his  firm 
y;oung  mouth.  He  had  the  air  of  one  who  thinks  much 
and  says  nothing,  the  demeanour  of  a  listener  who  dissents 
but  does  not  deem  it  worth  while  to  argue.  His  manner 
implied  a  tolerant  superiority,  his  expression  betrayed  a 
hint  of  contemptuous  indulgence  which  exasperated  his 
besotted  interlocutor. 

The  doctor  again  burst  out. 

' '  You  unconscionable  ass !  You  think  I  am  quizzing  you. 
Conceive  of  an  exile  in  this  cursed  wilderness  wantonly 
lying  to  entrap  a  helpless  waif !  I  may  be  rum-soaked  but 
I  am  incapable  of  such  vileness.  And  you  know  it.  You 
feel  it.  My  lad,  my  boy,  my  dear  boy,  what  I  say  is  no 
joke.  Never  name  him.  When  you  must  speak  of  him,  if 
you  must  speak  of  him,  give  him  his  titles;  and  until  you 


8  EL   SUPREMO 

know  them  and  can  get  them  right  do  not  speak  of  him  at 
all.  You  are  a  foreigner  and  his  prisoner.  Every  man, 
woman  and  child  in  Paraguay  is  his  prisoner,  every  one 
under  watch,  every  one  under  suspicion;  but  foreigners 
most  of  all  under  suspicion  and  under  watch  and  most 
particularly  his  prisoners.  You  must  call  upon  him  at 
once.  You  are  too  late  to  do  so  to-day.  But  make  it  your 
first  business  to-morrow.  You  know  where  to  find  him?" 

"At  the  Government  House,  I  suppose?"  Hawthorne 
replied. 

"That's  the  point,"  Parlett  rejoined.  "Whenever  you 
hear  anybody  say  'Government  House'  or  'Palacio'  in 
Asuncion,  ask  him  does  he  mean  the  old  Government  House, 
which  is  the  same  as  the  Cabildo,  or  the  new  Government 
House,  which  is  the  old  Jesuit  College. 

"As  you  came  up  the  stone  stairs  from  the  landing 
place,  you  noticed  a  great  sprawling  mass  of  buildings 
directly  in  front  of  you,  with  a  stone  cross  on  the  last 
gable  towards  the  square?" 

"Certainly  I  noticed  it,"  Hawthorne  agreed.  "It  was 
the  nearest  and  the  biggest  object  in  sight." 

"Naturally,  being  the  only  two-story  structure  in  all 
Paraguay,"  the  surgeon  resumed.  "Well,  that's  the  for 
mer  Jesuit  College,  the  new  Palacio,  the  new  Government 
House,  Larrazabal's  Government  House. 

"Now,  when  you  turned  the  north-east  corner  of  it  and 
came  into  the  plaza,  you  saw  on  your  right,  facing  the 
south-west  side  of  the  Plaza,  a  squat  rectangle  of  red-tile 
roof  resting  on  square  stone  pillars,  along  its  verandahs?" 

"I  counted  them,"  Hawthorne  said;  "eighteen  on  the 
side  towards  the  plaza  facing  the  river,  thirteen  on  the 
others,  reckoning  the  corner  columns  in  each  recount,  all 
whitewashed. ' ' 

"You  know  what  I  mean  then,"  Parlett  pursued. 
"That's  the  old  Government  House,  Irala's  Government 
House,  the  Cabildo  where  the  Intendentes  lived  from  Irala 
to  Moneda.  Larrazabal  lived  there  until  the  priests  were 
expelled,  then  moved -into  their  empty  college  as  being  a 
more  commodious  and  convenient  residence,  and  turned 
their  abandoned  church  at  the  corner  into  a  sola  for  dias  de 
besamanos,  for  official  levees,  as  it  has  been  ever  since. 

"So  for  fifty  years  now  Irala's  old  Government  House 


A   CHANCE    MEETING  9 

has  been  used  for  town  meetings  and  official  business  offices. 
Call  it  the  Cabildo  when  you  mention  it.  Yet  folks  call  it 
Palacio  and  Government  House  still,  and  whenever  any  one 
utters  those  words  you  have  to  ask  him  does  he  mean  the 
Cabildo  or  El  Supremo's  house,  which  is  Larrazabal's  new 
Government  House,  the  old  Jesuit  College,  the  two-story 
building. 

''That's  where  you'll  visit  him  to-morrow.  You  ought 
to  get  it  right,  for  I've  gone  over  it  three  times. 

"And  when  you  call  on  him  be  sure  you  use  the  correct 
etiquette  and  forms  of  address  before  him.  I  cannot  tell 
you  here.  I've  talked  too  long  now.  I  was  dry  before  I 
met  you  and  talking  makes  me  drier;  it  is  shady  under 
these  trees,  but  a  cool  patio,  a  deep  arcade,  a  high-ceilinged, 
thick-walled,  earth-floored  room  is  cooler.  I  am  on  my 
way  to  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop.  "Will  you  not  join  me  ?  "We 
can  drink  at  our  leisure  and  I  can  explain  to  you  how  to 
avoid  destruction  in  this  mad  country." 

"I  thank  you  for  the  invitation,"  Hawthorne  replied 
sedately.  "But  I  have  letters  of  introduction  to  Don 
Vicente  Mayorga.  I  feel  that  my  first  business  in  Asuncion 
is  to  present  them." 

"You  could  not  find  a  better  friend,"  Parlett  declared. 
"The  richest  man  in  Paraguay,  save  one,  and  a  perfect 
gentleman.  That  is  his  house  I  had  just  passed  when  I 
saw  you.  Except  the  Velarde  Mansion  it  is  the  handsomest 
residence  here.  You  will  find  Don  Vicente  the  prince  of 
hosts  and  the  most  charming  of  men.  He  can  and  will 
tell  you  all  you  need  to  know  of  one  whom  I  will  not 
name.  If  you  feel  like  talking  to  an  old  fool  of  a  Johnny 
Bull  after  your  siesta  you  will  find  me  at  the  wine-shop 
of  Dr.  Jenofonte  Bargas.  When  I  am  not  asleep  at  my 
lodgings,  or  abroad  plying  my  profession,  I  am  always  at 
Bargas'  wine-shop.  Any  one  in  Asuncion  can  tell  you  the 
way  to  it.  Meantime,  good  day  to  you,  for  I  am  dry  and 
double  dry." 

He  waddled  on  under  the  interlaced  trees,  picking  his 
way  through  the  half -dried  mudholes,  over  and  among  the 
litter  of  loose  stones  and  haphazard  rubbish. 

Hawthorne  walked  toward  the  house  Dr.  Parlett  had 
indicated.  It  was  big,  white-walled  and  roofed  with  red 
tiles.  It  faced  directly  on  the  street,  and  was  surrounded 


10  EL   SUPREMO 

"by  tall,  dark-leaved  orange  trees  like  those  along  the  road 
way,  so  close  together  that  their  outer  branches  inter 
mingled.  Above  them  towered  four  great  palms.  Just 
before  he  reached  it  a  little  cavalcade  came  into  sight  down 
the  gully  from  the  right  and  wheeled  into  the  street,  vivid 
in  the  sunlight  against  the  tall  green  bank,  topped  by  a 
dense  hedge,  at  which  the  street  ended.  There  were  four 
mulatto  lancers  on  ewe-necked,  rough-coated  horses,  lean 
and  ribby.  The  lancers  wore  small  round  red  caps,  each 
with  a  tricolor  cockade.  Their  white  coats  flapped  negli 
gently  open  over  red  waistcoats.  Their  white  trousers 
were  tucked  into  dirty  raw-hide  boots.  They  carried  their 
lances  in  a  careless,  slouchy  fashion.  Two  rode  before  the 
mule  they  convoyed  and  two  behind  it.  On  the  mule  was 
an  emaciated  young  man.  His  fever-bright  eyes,  close-set 
to  his  small  nose  under  black  eyebrows,  blazed  at  Haw 
thorne  out  of  a  sunburned  face,  half  hidden  under  a 
scrubby,  rough  growth  of  beard.  Round  his  hatless  head 
was  a  foul  bandage,  soaked  with  blood  over  the  forehead. 
His  right  leg  and  right  arm  were  lashed  with  a  great  super 
abundance  of  rope  to  a  long,  rough,  heavy  wooden  bar; 
his  left  arm  was  similarly  bound  to  his  body,-  his  ankles 
were  loaded  with  chains  which  passed  under  the  mule's 
belly.  "With  no  bridle  rein  to  steady  himself  by  nor  any 
saddle  beneath  him,  he  jounced  wretchedly  on  the  rough- 
trotting  mule,  his  face  drawn  and  pinched.  The  pitiful 
little  procession  clattered  towards  Hawthorne,  the  prison 
er's  chains  jangling  horridly.  Just  opposite  where  he 
stood  against  the  corner  of  the  house  they  wheeled  to  the 
right,  straggled  off  down  a  cross  street  past  a  curving 
cactus  hedge,  and  rounded  its  curve  till  they  disappeared 
towards  the  market  square  and  river  bank  from  which  he 
had  come. 

Hawthorne  turned  to  the  house. 

Its  windows  were  inscrutable,  wholly  shaded  by  green 
jalousies. 

Above  the  arch  of  the  doorway  was  a  carving,  evidently 
the  similitude  of  a  coat  of  arms.  From  the  blank,  even, 
unvaried  whiteness  of  the  house-wall  it  jutted,  conspicuous 
by  its  prominence,  flagrant  with  glaring  pigments.  Haw 
thorne  scrutinized  it,  his  head  thrown  back.  "What  it  might 
be  meant  for  he  could  not  make  out. 


A   CHANCE    MEETING  ii! 

If  an  armorial  bearing,  sculptured  in  high  relief,  had 
been  weathered  by  time  and  exposure  until  almost  unrecog 
nisable,  if  the  ill-defined  remains  of  it  had  been  copied  by 
an  ignorant  journeyman,  if  his  travesty  had  been  similarly 
worn  down  by  exposure  and  neglect,  if  another  oaf  had 
copied  the  worn  remains,  if  the  process  had  been  repeated 
again  and  again,  Hawthorne  fancied  the  result  might  be 
much  like  what  he  saw. 

The  crest  might  be  the  distorted  tradition  of  a  plumed 
helmet,  a  bird  with  wings  outspread,  a  bush  or  any  one  of 
a  dozen  other  objects.  The  supporters  might  be  meant  for 
lions,  unicorns,  griffons,  wyverns  or  almost  any  terrestrial 
quadrupeds  or  heraldic  monsters;  the  quarterings  were 
mere  curves  and  lines  of  carving. 

The  whole  was  daubed  with  thick,  ropy  paint,  evidently 
lavishly  laid  on,  coat  over  coat,  filling  in  all  the  depressions 
and  hollows  and  effacing  any  sharp  incisions.  The  tints 
were  far  from  heraldic  tinctures :  a  fearfully  insistent  pink 
made  a  sort  of  background,  from  which  stood  out  the  sharp 
green,  dark  red  and  darker  blue,  especially  the  blue.  All 
the  angles  and  bulges  were  touched  up  with  a  profusion, 
of  tarnished  gold  leaf. 

It  was  a  sort  of  nightmare  escutcheon ;  one  made  of  wa£ 
or  confectioners'  sugar,  half  melted  and  hastily  repaired, 
might  appear  much  like  this  bleared  reminder  of  half- 
forgotten  grandeurs. 

The  doorway  was  ample  and  broad,  its  sill  was  level 
with  the  walk,  its  flag-floor  clean  and  cool.  The  door  was 
wide  open.  Through  it  Hawthorne  could  see  into  a  largo 
patio,  and  across  this  courtyard  he  descried  a  column  of 
an  arcade.  As  he  stepped  under  the  arch  a  man  appeared 
in  the  doorway  from  the  patio. 

He  was  a  tallish,  plump  man  and  wore  a  cocked  hat. 
Likewise  he  wore  an  amazing  coat.  It  was  of  mazarine- 
blue  cloth,  and  it  had  a  wide  collar,  large  flaps,  broad  cuffs, 
ample  skirts  and  long  tails.  Also  it  had  large,  flat  mother- 
of-pearl  buttons,  wherever  buttons  could  possibly  be  at 
tached  to  it.  The  man's  waistcoat  was  embroidered  and 
its  numerous  small  buttons  were  of  gold,  as  were  the  knee- 
buckles  of  his  black  knee-breeches  and  the  larger  buckles 
of  his  low  shoes.  "White  silk  stockings  showed  off  his  plump 
and  shapely  calves.  At  his  side  he  wore  a  gold-hilted  court- 


112  EL    SUPREMO 

sword  in  a  silver  scabbard.  In  his  right  hand  he  carried 
a  yellow,  silver-ferruled,  gold-headed  cane,  with  a  crimson 
silk  cord  and  tassel.  Fine  lace  ruffles  showed  at  his  throat 
and  wrists.  His  plump  face  was  healthfully  rosy  and  wore 
a  kindly  smile.  His  brown  eyes  dwelt  upon  Hawthorne 
with  a  courtly  interest  as  far  from  intrusive  curiosity  as 
from  forbidding  haughtiness. 

Hawthorne  addressed  him  in  his  best  Castilian. 

"Am  I  mistaken  in  supposing  that  this  is  the  house  of 
Don  Vicente  Mayorga?" 

"I  myself,"  said  the  Spaniard,  with  a  bow,  "am  that 
Don  Vicente  Mayorga  whom  you  name.  In  what  manner 
may  I  serve  you,  Senor?" 

i '  I  am  the  bearer  of  letters  of  introduction, ' '  Hawthorne 
replied,  *  *  from  Mr.  Robert  Ponsonby  Staples,  English  Con 
sul  at  Buenos  Aires,  from  Don  Nicholas  Herrera,  and  from 
Don  Ignacio  Cisneros,  of  that  city,  from  Don  Luis  Aldao 
and  Don  Pascual  Echagiie  of  Santa  Fe,  from  Don  Fran 
cisco  Candioti,  the  Estanciero  of  Entre  Rios,  from  Don 
Cayetano  Martinez,  and  Don  Esteban  Maria  Perrichon  of 
Corrientes,  and  from  others  of  your  good  friends. ' ' 

The  Spaniard  bowed  for  the  second  time,  a  low  bow. 

"And  by  what  name  shall  I  address  the  friend  of  my 
friends,  Senor?"  he  asked. 

Hawthorne  told  him  his  name. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    UNSPEAKABLE   NAME 

rtlHE  Spaniard  bowed,  even  lower  than  before. 

A     "Do  me  the  honor,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said, 
"of  entering  my  house,  which  is  henceforth  yours." 

He  led  the  way,  not  going  into  the  patio  itself,  but  turn 
ing  to  the  right  under  the  arcade.  The  first  door,  wide 
open  like  the  street  door,  admitted  them  to  a  large  room 
so  dark  that  Hawthorne's  eyes,  still  dazzled  with  the  out 
door  glare,  could  make  out  little  of  it.  The  three  big 
windows  facing  him  as  he  entered  were  so  screened  by 
their  close-slatted  jalousies  that  hardly  more  than  a  glim 
mer  of  outside  daylight  sifted  through  them.  The  two 


THE   UNSPEAKABLE   NAME         13 

windows  on  the  courtyard  side  were  similarly  jalousied  and 
were  besides  under  the  broad,  low  arcade.  Most  of  the 
light  in  the  room  came  from  the  open  door,  reflected  from 
across  the  patio.  A  taper,  to  be  sure,  burned  in  a  low- 
stemmed,  broad-saucered  silver  candlestick  on  a  big  round 
table  of  dull-surfaced,  blackish  wood.  But  it  gave  little 
illumination. 

His  host  unbuckled  his  sword  and  laid  it,  with  his 
cane,  on  a  chest  by  the  wall.  There  were  two  inviting 
arm-chairs  by  the  table  and  toward  one  of  these  he  waved 
Hawthorne  with  a  graceful  gesture  of  his  small  white  hand. 
From  a  pocket  of  his  embroidered  waistcoat  he  produced 
a  gold  snuff-box. 

"Do  you  take  snuff,  Senor  Don  Guillermo?"  he  asked. 

"With  pleasure,  Senor  Don  Vicente,"  Hawthorne  re 
plied,  "and  if  I  did  not  your  exquisite  Princesa  would 
tempt  even  a  novice  to  enjoy  it." 

"I  see  you  are  far  from  being  a  novice,"  Don  Vicente 
smiled  at  him.  "It  requires  an  old  hand  to  recognize 
Princesa  before  snuffing  it." 

"The  best  selected  Brazilian  snuff,  such  as  you  use, 
Senor  Don  Vicente,"  Hawthorne  said,  "makes  itself  ap 
parent  as  soon  as  the  box  is  opened." 

"To  connoisseurs  like  yourself,  Senor  Don  Guillermo," 
the  Spaniard  replied.  "But  the  generality  of  mankind 
cannot  discern  Princesa  from  common  snuff." 

"They  are  the  losers,"  Hawthorne  remarked  senten- 
tiously. 

"True,"  Don  Vicente  agreed,  snapping  the  snuff-box 
and  returning  it  to  his  waistcoat. 

Hawthorne  took  a  flat  packet  from  an  inner  pocket  of 
fiis  sober  brown  coat.  At  sight  of  it  Mayorga  rose,  and 
Hawthorne,  similarly  rising,  presented  the  sheaf  of  letters. 
Both  bowed.  After  they  had  reseated  themselves  the  gold 
snuff-box  a^ain  appeared,  again  both  men  partook  of  its 
contents.  Don  Vicente  opened  one  of  the  letters.  While  he 
ran  over  them  one  by  one,  Hawthorne  looked  about  him. 
His  eyes  were  by  this  time  accustomed  to  the  grateful 
gloom.  The  ceiling  and  walls  of  the  room  were  white 
washed,  its  floor  brick.  There  was  little  furniture  besides 
the  table  and  chairs,  three  or  four  chests,  and  a  tall,  locked 
cabinet.  Hawthorne's  eyes  wandered  to  the  door  and  re- 


14  EL   SUPREMO 

garded  the  red-brown  sandstone  of  the  pavement  of  the 
courtyard  and  the  roughly  rounded  red  sandstone  pillars 
of  its  colonnade  beyond.  His  host  opened  letter  after  letter, 
barely  glancing  through  each;  then  he  produced,  from  a 
capacious  inner  pocket,  a  large  silver  cigar-case,  opened 
it,  and  offered  it  to  Hawthorne,  who  took  one  of  the  big, 
blackish,  blotchy  Paraguayan  cigars.  Don  Vicente  took 
one  himself,  returned  the  case  to  his  pocket,  lifted  the 
candle-stick  from  the  table,  held  it  to  Hawthorne's  cigar, 
lit  his  own,  replaced  the  candle-stick,  and  settled  himself 
back  in  his  arm-chair. 

"My  house,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "is  at  your 
disposal  and  all  it  contains  is  yours.  View  it  at  your 
leisure,  select  whichever  of  its  rooms  best  suits  you,  put  up 
as  best  you  may,  I  beg  of  you,  with  our  poor  fare,  and  do 
me  the  favour  to  make  here  your  abode  while  you  honour 
Asuncion  with  your  presence." 

1  { The  favour, ' '  said  Hawthorne,  "is  all  from  you  to  me. 
Your  house  is  a  palace  compared  with  anything  I  have 
seen  in  Paraguay.  A  stay  here  cannot  be  other  than  a 
delight.  I  know  not  how  to  thank  you.  I  only  wish  I 
could  do  something  to  requite  you  for  your  kindness. " 

"You  can  requite  any  kindness  I  may  be  able  to  do 
you/7  said  Don  Vicente,  "and  requite  it  in  full  measure, 
if  you  can  give  authentic  news  of  the  Corsican.  We  are 
distracted  by  conflicting  rumors.  We  hear  that  Ferdinand 
the  Seventh  is  firmly  established  upon  the  throne  of  his 
ancestors,  restored  to  the  dominion  of  all  Spain.  Next  we 
are  told  that  the  Corsican  has  returned  to  Paris,  that  he 
is  again  in  possession  of  all  France,  of  all  Italy,  even  of 
Sicily,  of  all  Spain,  even  of  Cadiz;  then  we  hear  that  he 
has  been  killed  in  a  great  battle;  next  that  he  has  scat 
tered  his  enemies,  has  once  more  captured  Vienna,  has 
Europe  as  before  at  his  feet,  and  again  is  master  of  the 
world. 

' '  Then  we  hear  that  he  is  a  prisoner  in  England.  What 
are  we  to  believe?  Do  you  know  anything  for  certain?" 

Hawthorne  affirmed  the  final  collapse  of  Napoleon's  for 
tunes  as  he  had  to  Dr.  Parlett,  but  at  much  greater  length. 
He  also  descanted  upon  the  situation  in  Europe  in  general 
and  in  Spain  in  particular.  He  wound  up  by  saying: 

"The  King  of  Spain,  Senor  Don  Vicente,  is  assured  the 


THE   UNSPEAKABLE   NAME         1C 

peaceful  possession  of  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  At 
least,  he  is  exposed  to  no  danger  of  further  interference 
from  France/' 

"You  relieve  me,"  Don  Vicente  sighed.  "My  king,  who 
is  no  longer  my  king,  is  at  least  secure.  You  relieve  me. 
Shall  we  have  some  mate?  Do  you  relish  our  native  bever 
age?" 

"I  do  indeed,"  said  Hawthorne  enthusiastically.  "If 
you  wish  it,  let  us  have  some  by  all  means." 

"Bopi,"  Don  Vicente  called,  "mate." 

A  grunt  from  under  the  arcade  outside  the  door  was 
the  only  answer,  but  almost  at  once  there  appeared  in  the 
doorway  a  darkish  mulatto  boy,  barefoot  and  bareheaded, 
clad  in  a  white  jacket,  white  shirt  and  white  trousers.  He 
carried  a  big  silver  tray  on  which  was  a  tall  silver  urn, 
visibly  steaming  above  and  showing  the  blue  nickering 
flame  of  a  spirit  lamp  below.  In  front  of  it  were  two  silver 
cups;  tallish,  two-handled,  with  slender  stems  like  goblets 
and  a  goblet-like  foot.  Round  the  urn  were  ranged  five 
silver  bowls,  the  two  largest  empty,  one  of  the  smaller 
heaped  with  delicate,  translucent  cylindrical  rolls  of  glitter 
ing  white  sugar,  one  with  big,  very  light  yellow  lemons, 
and  the  smallest  half  full  of  a  darkish  grey  powder,  with 
a  flat-handled  silver  spoon  sticking  in  it.  Between  them 
were  two  flattish  calabash-gourds,  each  with  a  silver  handle 
attached  to  it  by  a  band  of  silver  round  its  middle.  In 
the  top  of  each  was  a  round  silver-rimmed  hole  about  as 
big  as  a  half  dollar.  On  the  tray,  along  with  the  bowls 
and  calabashes,  were  two  silver  spoons,  two  silver  knives, 
and  two  silver  tubes,  each  about  nine  inches  long,  about 
as  thick  as  a  woman's  little  finger,  beautifully  carved,  and 
expanded  at  one  end  into  a  flattish,  roundish  bulge,  like 
the  bowl  of  a  spoon  covered  over,  pierced  above  and  below 
with  a  multitude  of  tiny  holes. 

"Shall  Bopi  prepare  your  mate  for  you,  Seilor  Don  Guil- 
lermo?"  the  Spaniard  enquired,  "or  do  you  prefer  to 
prepare  it  yourself,  like  most  of  us?" 

"Myself,  if  it  please  you,  Senor  Don  Vicente,"  Haw 
thorne  replied. 

"And  do  you  prefer  milk  or  lemon  in  it?"  his  host 
queried. 

"Neither  for  me,  Senor  Don  Vicente,"  Hawthorne  an- 


16  EL   SUPREMO 

swered,  "I  think  the  flavor  of  the  yerla  too  good  to  be 
spoiled  by  an  addition. " 

"You  are  half  a  Paraguayan  already,"  his  host  beamed 
at  him.  "For  myself,  give  me  lemon  always.  Pardon  me 
if  I  speak  Guarani  to  my  servant. ' ' 

Hawthorne  bowed  and  Mayorga  spoke  some  swift  sen 
tences  to  the  mulatto,  who,  Hawthorne  now  perceived,  had 
but  one  eye.  The  boy  replied  to  his  master  by  a  word  or 
two  and  left  the  room. 

Don  Vicente  rose  and  moved  his  chair  nearer  the  table, 
motioning  his  guest  to  do  likewise.  As  they  reseated  them 
selves  he  waved  his  shapely  right  hand  toward  the  tray 
and  urn.  Hawthorne  took  up  one  of  the  calabashes,  ladled 
some  spoonfuls  of  the  dark  powder  into  it,  held  it  under 
the  long,  projecting  spout  of  the  urn  and  turned  the  agate- 
handled  tap  to  let  a  very  little  boiling  water  run  into  the 
gourd.  Then  he  picked  up  one  of  the  silver  tubes  from  the 
tray ;  with  its  flattened,  expanded  end  he  packed  the  moist 
ened  powder  against  one  side  of  the  hollow  gourd,  which 
he  again  held  under  the  tap  until  it  was  nearly  full  of 
steaming  water. 

Holding  the  gourd  in  his  right  hand  and  eyeing  it  at 
short  intervals  he  observed: 

"I  understood  some  of  what  you  said  to  the  boy.  You 
told  him  that  no  milk  was  wanted  and  that  he  might  go. 
The  rest,  and  his  answer,  I  did  not  catch/* 

"You  are  quick,  Seiior  Don  Guillermo,"  his  host  told 
him  with  a  pleased  smile,  taking  up  the  other  calabash  and 
proceeding  as  had  his  guest. 

"You  will  be  a  complete  Paraguayan  in  no  time.  It  is 
well  to  know  Guarani.  It  is  the  common  language  of  the 
country.  Few  natives  understand  any  Spanish.  All  Cre 
oles  speak  Guarani  in  general  and  their  Spanish  is  none 
too  good.  We  Spaniards  here  resident  use  the  native  idiom 
daily,  even  among  ourselves." 

Hawthorne  sniffed  at  the  aperture  in  his  calabash  with 
an  appreciative  expression  of  anticipation.  He  leaned  to 
ward  the  tray,  tilted  the  calabash  slowly  over  one  of  the 
empty  bowls  and  poured  off  most  of  the  water,  until  some 
of  the  powder  began  to  escape  with  it.  He  then  dropped 
two  of  the  small  cylinders  of  sugar  into  the  calabash  and 
filled  it  a  second  time  with  water  from  the  now  furiously 


THE   UNSPEAKABLE   NAME         17 

steaming  urn.  His  host  looked  on  with  approval  painted 
all  over  him. 

''You  are  an  expert  at  preparing  yerba,"  he  remarked. 
"You  already  have  learned  to  prefer  a  gourd  to  a  silver 
cup  and  to  pour  off  the  first  infusion.  But  take  another 
panal,  your  mate  will  not  be  sweet  enough." 

"I  do  not  like  it  too  sweet,"  Hawthorne  replied.  "Two 
panales  are  sufficient  for  me." 

He  held  the  calabash  in  his  left  hand,  slid  his  right  hand 
inside  the  breast  of  his  snuff-coloured  coat  and  brought  out 
a  leather  case  about  ten  inches  long.  This  he  laid  on  his 
knee,  deftly  opened  it  with  the  fingers  of  his  free  hand,  took 
out  a  silver  tube  like  those  on  the  tray,  and  returned  the 
case  to  the  pocket  from  which  he  had  taken  it. 

t '  Ah, ' '  said  Mayorga,  as  he  decanted  the  first  water  from 
his  gourd,  dropped  four  panales  into  it  and  refilled  it, '  *  you 
are  a  lover  of  our  mate;  I  see  you  carry  your  own  'bom- 
lilla." 

1 1 1  take  mate  whenever  I  can, ' '  Hawthorne  replied.  ' '  It 
is  well  to  be  ready. ' ' 

"Do  not  wait  for  me,"  said  his  host,  cutting  a  lemon. 
"Your  mate  will  lose  its  warmth." 

"I  cannot  drink  it  as  boiling  as  you  natives  take  it," 
Hawthorne  told  him  with  a  smile.  "I  let  it  lose  its  first 
fury  of  heat." 

Don  Vicente  smiled  back  at  him  and  took  up  a  bombilla 
from  the  tray.  Each  dipped  his  tube  through  the  opening 
in  his  gourd  and  simultaneously  they  began  to  imbibe  the 
steaming  beverage  through  their  bombillas. 

Hawthorne  freed  his  mouth  from  the  tube  almost  in 
stantly,  his  face  beaming. 

' '  This  is  indeed  a  treat. ' '  he  exclaimed ; ' '  this  is  caa  cuys, 
powdered  leaf-buds,  is  it  not?  It  is  exquisite,  unsurpass 
able." 

"You  are  indeed  an  adept,"  Don  Vicente  replied,  beam 
ing  in  his  turn.  "Few  foreigners  ever  attain  such  dis 
crimination.  Few  Paraguayans  can  so  much  as  tell  caa 
miri  from  caa  guazu." 

"I  barely  relish  the  usual  caa  guazu,"  Hawthorne  told 
him,  "even  a  very  little  mid-rib  left  in  with  the  leaves 
spoils  the  taste  of  yerba  for  me.  The  ordinary  coarse- 
ground  yerba  de  polos  has  little  attraction  for  me.  The 


i8  EL   SUPREMO 

finer-ground  caa  miri,  free  from  leaf -midribs,  I  like  very- 
much.  But  this  infusion  of  young  buds  is  the  superior  of 
all  conceivable  beverages.  No  drink  can  possibly  surpass 
it.  I  have  tasted  it  but  once  before,  at  the  parsonage  at 
Neembucu,  where  the  curate  entertained  me." 

"Pai  Acatu  is  said  to  have  a  pretty  taste  for  all  sorts  of 
eating  and  drinking, ' '  Don  Vicente  remarked.  ' '  No  doubt 
lie  exceeded  himself  for  a  foreigner." 

"A  most  agreeable  ecclesiastic  and  a  charming  host/' 
Hawthorne  assented.  "But  your  caa  cuys  is  better  than 
his." 

The  Spaniard  bowed  and  they  fell  again  to  enjoying  their 
mate.  So  occupied,  each  had  leisure  to  look  the  other  over. 

Mayorga  saw  a  tall,  well-built  man  who  looked  both 
young  and  mature  and  might  have  been  any  age  between 
twenty-two  and  thirty-eight.  He  had  a  long,  roundish 
head,  with  curly  yellow  hair,  snappy  grey-blue  eyes,  and  a 
nose  so  hooked  that  his  profile  had  indeed  a  resemblance  to 
that  of  the  victor  of  Waterloo,  as  Dr.  Parlett  had  remarked 
to  him.  The  firmness  and  determination «  of  his  lips  and 
chin  also  gave  that  part  of  his  face  a  certain  resemblance 
to  Wellington 's,  although  the  features  themselves  were  more 
graceful  and  less  harsh  in  outline.  He  had  the  air,  as  his 
face  had  the  expression,  of  a  man  who  knew  exactly  what 
he  meant  to  say  and  do.  There  was  none  of  the  repulsion 
of  self-assertion  about  him,  but  rather  the  charm  of  a  manly 
^self-reliance  and  a  boyish  self-confidence  underlying  a  mod 
est  and  warm-hearted  attitude  of  sympathetic  considerate- 
ness  for  others.  His  movements  had  the  cat-like  grace 
and  deliberation  of  a  man  capable  of  lightning  quickness 
and  conscious  of  a  superfluity  of  physical  strength. 

Hawthorne  saw  in  the  Spaniard  a  man  passing  from  easy 
and  prosperous  middle  life  towards  a  green  old  age,  a  well- 
fed  and  healthy  man,  ruddy  of  face,  his  hair  untouched 
by  any  thread  of  grey,  his  brown  eyes  clear  and  bright, 
his  lips  red  over  big  white  teeth,  his  body  round  and  full 
as  his  face.  He  was  plainly  of  the  unmixed  blue  blood, 
for  he  had  not  only  the  unacquirable  presence  of  a  grandee, 
but  the  amazingly  small  feet  and  hands  seen  only  in  per 
sonages  of  old  family  and  long  lineage. 

Sipping  their  steaming  drink  the  two  men  regarded  each 
other. 


THE   UNSPEAKABLE   NAME         19 

Presently  Mayorga  said : 

"Pardon  me,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  if  I  touch  upon  a 
delicate  subject.  But  I  cannot  help  wondering  how  it 
comes  that  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  of  North  America 
is  so  warmly  and  almost  officially  recommended  by  a  con 
sul  of  the  English  King.  Are  not  the  two  nations  at 
war?" 

As  to  Dr.  Parlett,  so  to  his  host  Hawthorne  explained 
about  the  treaty,  the  belated  news  of  it,  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans,  the  various  naval  engagements  and  the  now  uni 
versal  peace.  He  ended  by  praising  Mr.  Robert  Ponsonby 
Staples  in  particular,  and  English  Consuls  in  general. 

"Where  my  country  has  no  representatives, "  he  said, 
"they  frequently  care  for  travellers  of  my  nationality." 

"You  are,  I  believe,"  the  Spaniard  observed,  "the  first 
of  that  nationality  to  visit  Asuncion.  May  I  enquire  what 
has  led  you  to  visit  Paraguay?" 

"I,"  said  Hawthorne,  "like  many  of  my  countrymen, 
am  inclined  toward  profit-getting  through  trade-ventures. 
In  search  of  an  opportunity  to  make  a  fortune  through 
trade  I  roam  about  the  world.  But  I  am  also  an  ardent 
apostle  of  true  liberty." 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  his  host  interrupted,  extending 
a  plump,  deprecating  hand,  ' '  choose  your  words  more  care 
fully,  I  beg  of  you." 

1 '  I  am  not  only  an  apostle  of  liberty, ' '  Hawthorne  went 
on,  "I  have  fought  for  liberty,  risking  my  life  in  more 
than  one  part  of  this  continent ;  I  was  with  Bolivar  at  Car 
tagena  and  at  Pamplona ;  I  was  in  Caracas  four  years  ago 
at  the  time  of  the  earthquake.  But  it  appeared  to  me  that 
those  men  talk  of  liberty  but  fight  for  the  mere  sake  of 
fighting.  I  left  them  in  disgust.  I  was  with  San  Martin 
at  Cuyo.  I  was  with  both  Posadas  and  Alvear  at  Buenos 
Aires.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  these  men  too  merely  aim 
at  liberty,  and  are  incapable  of  it.  I  was  about  to  leave 
South  America  when  I  was  seized  with  interest  in  Para 
guay.  I  heard  strange  rumours,  conflicting  in  many  things, 
agreeing  in  a  few." 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  Mayorga  again  interrupted 
with  a  protesting  gesture.  "Be  cautious,  I  beg  of  you." 

"All  these  stories,"  Hawthorne  continued  imperturb- 
ably,  "agreed  as  to  the  people  of  Paraguay  being  simple 


20  EL   SUPREMO 

and  frugal,  gentle  and  brave;  capable  of  protecting  them 
selves  from  outside  interference,  as  Belgrano  felt  five 
years  ago;  peaceable  and  incapable  of  such  disorders  as 
Artigas  keeps  up  throughout  the  Banda  Oriental;  eager 
for  liberty  but  dominated  by  a  dictator." 

"Seiior  Don  Guillermo,"  Mayorga  exclaimed.  "Be  ad 
vised,  be  prudent." 

"Of  this  dictator,"  Hawthorne  proceeded  calmly,  "I 
heard  uniformly  that  he  was  a  man  of  rare  character  and 
attainments,  of  great  force  of  personality  and  of  great 
capacity,  a  born  ruler  in  every  respect.  Otherwise  the 
rumours  were  irreconcilable;  that  he  was  ruling  in  the 
^name  of  Charles  the  Fourth,  holding  his  abdication  invalid 
and  proclaiming  him  the  only  legitimate  King  of  Spain; 
that  he  was  ruling  in  the  name  of  King  Ferdinand  the 
Seventh,  hoping  for  a  restoration  of  Spanish  power 
throughout  the  Intendencia ;  that  he  was  governing  in  the 
name  of  the  dowager  Queen  of  Portugal ;  that  he  was  nego 
tiating  with  Emperor  Dom  Pedro  for  a  union  of  Paraguay 
with  Brazil  or  its  absorption  by  Brazil;  that  he  had  put 
himself  under  the  direction  of  the  remains  of  the  Jesuits 
and  governed  in  their  name ;  that  he  had  set  up  a  certain 
Don  Galicien  le  Fort,  as  Marquis  of  the  Guaranfes,  and 
hereditary  ruler  of  an  independent  Paraguay ;  that  he  had 
abdicated  in  favour  of  a  junta  and  was  acting  nominally 
as  their  generalissimo.  But  all  these  contradictory  rumours 
agreed  in  representing  him  as  a  stern  oppressor,  as  a  grim 
and  relentless  tyrant. ' ' 

1  i  Seiior  Don  Guillermo, ' '  cried  Mayorga,  laying  his  mate 
gourd  on  the  silver  tray  with  a  clatter,  "Seiior  Don  Guil 
lermo,  I  implore  you.  Take  care ! ' ' 

"Your  agitation,  Senor  Don  Vicente,"  Hawthorne  pla 
cidly  replied,  "seems  to  confirm  me  in  the  general  im 
pression  derived  from  the  rumours.  It  strengthens  my 
purpose.  Know  then  that  I  have  come  to  Asuncion  because 
I  heard  that  it  and  its  neighbouring  regions  are  in  the 
grip  of  a  cruel  and  remorseless  despot,  that  no  land  is 
more  truly  deprived  of  liberty,  that  no  people  is  more  truly 
oppressed.  I  have  come  to  discover  whether  any  love  of 
freedom  exists  in  any  part  of  Paraguay's  population,  to 
arouse  that  spark  of  aspiration,  if  such  a  spark  there  be; 
to  foment  it,  to  lead  toward  freedom  any  who  long  for 


THE   UNSPEAKABLE   NAME         21 

freedom,  in  short  to  satisfy  myself  whether  he  deserves  it 
and  if  so  to  compass  the  overthrow  of  Dr.  Francia." 

"Dios!  Senor  Don  Guillermo!"  Mayorga  exclaimed, 
fairly  springing  from  his  chair  and  laying  his  plump  white 
hands  on  the  shoulders  of  the  unmoved  young  man.  ' '  Speak 
lower !  Some  one  might  hear !  Bopi  might  hear !  If  you 
are  reckless  of  your  own  life,  if  you  are  even  resolved  upon 
self  destruction,  consider,  I  beg  of  you,  my  wife  and  chil 
dren,  consider  myself.  You  will  involve  my  family  with 
myself  in  your  ruin." 

The  American's  eye  kindled  with  a  keen  and  sparkling 
brightness ;  his  nostrils  curled,  his  face  glowed  with  anima 
tion. 

"Ah!"  he  exclaimed.  "I  have  found  my  predestined 
field  at  last!  You  make  me  sure!  No  men  on  earth  are 
more  resentful  of  oppression  than  you  Spaniards  of  the 
pure  blood ;  no  men  alive  are  braver,  and  I  see  in  you  not 
only  indignation,  rage,  and  impotent  hate,  but  I  see  terror. 
You  are  afraid.  Pardon  me,  Senor  Don  Vicente,  but  you 
dread  this  man.  Take  courage.  I  am  with  you.  From 
us  two  shall  spread  the  wave  of  resistance  which  shall  over 
whelm  the  despot,  which  shall  restore  liberty  to  Paraguay 
and  bring  destruction  upon  Dr.  Francia. ' ' 

"For  el  amor  de  dios,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  Mayorga 
cried,  wringing  his  hands.  "Do  not  speak  that  name/' 

"I  met  a  man  on  the  street,"  Hawthorne  said,  "who 
told  me  the  same  thing.  He  said  he  was  a  Dr.  Parlett,  an 
English  surgeon.  He  seemed  nearly  as  wrought  up  as  you 
are.  But  he  was  scarcely  sober  and  I  thought  him  foolish 
or  amusing  himself  with  me.  His  statements  tallied,  how 
ever,  with  those  of  Pai  Acatu  at  Neembucu." 

"Don  Tomas,"  said  Mayorga,  "is  a  sensible  man,  how 
ever  much  wine  he  may  have  drunk.  Pai  Acatu  is  a  sen 
sible  man." 

1 '  Do  you  really  fear  this  upstart  tyrant  so  much, ' '  Haw 
thorne  drawled,  "that  you  even  shrink  from  uttering  his 
name?" 

"With  reason."  Mayorga  gasped.  "With  reason,  Senor 
Don  Guillermo.  No  sooner  was  he  established  as  Supreme 
Dictator  than  he  changed  his  former  easy-going  manners, 
accentuated  his  reserve  into  a  cold  and  forbidding  haughti 
ness.  He  allowed  no  one  to  address  him,  like  the  rest  of 


22  EL   SUPREMO 

us,  as  'Usia.'  He  must  be  addressed  as  'Excelentisimo 
Senor.'  And  he  allowed  no  one  to  speak  of  him  any  longer 
as  before ;  he  promulgated  a  decree  that  he  must  be  referred 
to  or  spoken  of  only  as  'El  Supremo.'  "We  scarcely  took 
the  decree  seriously ;  we  regarded  it  as  applying  to  negroes 
and  mulattoes,  to  half-breeds,  Guaranies  and  other  Indians, 
who  already  so  addressed  him  and  so  spoke  of  him  of  their 
own  accord.  We  were  cruelly  and  suddenly  undeceived. 

"A  young  man  named  Ramon  Perez,  of  good  family, 
though  poor,  while  chatting  in  the  market-square,  spoke  of 
the  Dictator  by  his  name.  It  was  reported  to  him.  He 
ordered  him  arrested  and  had  him  confined  in  the  general 
prison.  An  imprudent  gentleman,  Don  Cristobal  de  Maria, 
ventured  to  remonstrate  with  the  Dictator  for  his  harsh 
ness. 

"  'What!'  said  the  Dictator,  'you  think  that  to  speak  of 
the  Dictator  of  Paraguay  familiarly  and  without  respect 
does  not  deserve  imprisonment?  To  prison  you  go  your 
self  !' 

' '  And  Don  Cristobal  is  now  in  the  public  prison,  herded 
with  criminals  and  ruffians. 

"One  of  our  foremost  citizens,  Don  Jose  Carisimo,  sec 
ond  assessor  of  the  customs,  an  intimate  of  the  Dictator's 
since  both  were  boys,  a  man  of  the  most  scrupulous  polite 
ness,  while  talking  to  him  inadvertently  slipped  back  into 
natural  utterance  and  said  'Usia.'  Instantly  the  Dictator 
turned  his  back  on  him.  Don  Jose  left  the  Government 
House  in  chagrin.  That  night  the  Dictator's  assistant 
secretary,  Don  Andres  Villarino,  came  secretly  to  Don  Jose 
at  his  home  and  informed  him  that  the  Dictator  was  so 
incensed  that  it  would  not  be  safe  for  him  ever  to  approach, 
him  again.  The  next  morning  early  Don  Jose  dispatched  a 
servant  with  a  formal  resignation  of  his  office  of  Assessor. 
Before  noon  he  heard,  as  we  all  heard,  the  fife  and  drum, 
pass  his  house,  as  they  passed  every  house  of  importance 
in  the  city:  he  heard  read  from  the  street  corner,  as  we 
all  heard  from  some  corner  or  other,  the  decree  that  who 
ever  spoke  of  or  addressed  the  Dictator  otherwise  than 
according  to  law  would  be  shot. 

"Since  then  few  men  have  dared  to  speak  to  Don  Jose 
or  to  salute  him ;  fewer  have  dared  to  call  oo  him.  He  lives 
almost  as  a  hermit,  afraid  to  venture  abroad  lest  ho  suffer 


THE   UNSPEAKABLE   NAME         23 

slights  or  bring  misfortune  upon  his  faithful  friends.  Only 
two  or  three  of  us  in  the  city  risk  the  Dictator 's  displeasure 
by  treating  Don  Jose  precisely  as  before ;  only  two  or  three 
of  the  country  gentry  are  so  venturesome. " 

"This  seems  to  me,"  said  Hawthorne,  "a  peevish  and 
childish  kind  of  vindictiveness. ' ' 

"Do  not  dare  to  say  so  to  any  one,  Don  Guillermo," 
Mayorga  told  him.  "It  might  be  reported.  And  be  careful 
to  speak  of  the  Dictator  as  'El  Supremo.'  Doubtless  I 
have  conveyed  to  you  that  Don  Tomas  was  not  talking  at 
random  or  from  inebriety. ' ' 

"It  begins  to  dawn  on  me,"  Hawthorne  admitted,  half 
whimsically,  half  ruefully.  "But  what  I  cannot  compre 
hend,  Senor  Don  Vicente,  is  why  you  submit  to  the  tyranny 
of  such  a  man. ' ' 

"If  there  were  nothing  of  him,  Senor  Don  Guillermo," 
Mayorga  replied,  '  *  except  his  spitef ulness  and  bad  temper, 
if  all  the  rest  of  his  character  were  in  consonance  with 
his  outbursts  of  vindictiveness,  his  domination  would  not 
be  long  or  would  never  have  come  to  pass.  But  he  is  not 
wholly  such  as  his  worst  would  lead  you  to  think.  He  has 
a  complicated  and  wonderful  individuality  and  chiefly  he 
is  amazingly  competent." 

"Seiior  Don  Vicente,"  said  Hawthorne,  "even  before  I 
came  he  was  not  the  only  competent  man  in  Paraguay. ' ' 

"Perhaps  not,"  his  host  allowed.  "But  he  has  control 
of  all  the  cannon,  of  all  the  ammunition  in  the  country." 

"What  are  powder,  shot  and  guns,"  Hawthorne  de 
manded,  "against  men?" 

"Ah,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  his  host  replied.  "He  has 
men  too.  We  Spaniards  are  few,  very  few.  There  are  not 
a  thousand  of  us,  men,  women  and  children,  in  ail  Para 
guay.  Of  Creoles  of  the  pure  blood  there  are  not  ten 
thousand.  Only  we  Spaniards  and  some  few  Creoles  are 
opposed  to  the  Dictator.  Most  of  the  Creoles  are  with  him 
and  approve  of  him  and  all  he  does.  The  hundred  thou 
sand  mestizoes,  half-breeds  and  mixed  bloods,  the  hundred! 
thousand  Guaranies  and  other  Christian  Indians,  the  al 
most  negligible  ten  thousand  negroes,  mulattoes,  quadroons 
and  octoroons  are  all  alike  devoted  to  him,  body  and  soul. 
Taken  altogether  they  are  twenty  or  more  to  every  one  of 
us.  And  they  are  not  merely  unanimously  devoted  to  our 


24  EL   SUPREMO 

ruler,  they  not  only  idolise  him  personally,  but  their  adora 
tion  is  strengthened  by  a  fanatical  superstition.  "We  were 
indeed  helpless  when  we  voted  him  supreme  Dictator  and 
were  entrapped  into  doing  so.  But  we  were  also  deceived. 
We  did  not  foresee  the  consequences  of  the  wording  of  his 
title.  The  Guarani  equivalent  for  Supremo  is  a  term  be 
longing  to  the  language  of  their  ancient  paganism,  a  term 
used  by  the  missionaries  only  of  the  Most  High.  The 
mestizoes  half  credit  and  the  Indians  wholly  believe  that 
by  vote,  by  legislation,  by  enactment,  this  man  has  been 
made  omnipotent.  Nothing  can  shake  this  faith,  much  less 
uproot  it.  This  superstition  is  of  his  wily  devising,  the 
product  of  his  crafty  foresight.  Upon  ourselves  we  welded 
this  shackle,  as  it  were  grillos  upon  our  ankles.  Well  does 
he  know  that  it  is  his  chief  strength  and  astutely  does  he 
use  it  against  us." 

Hawthorne  was  about  to  reply  when  the  door  darkened. 
Bopi  appeared  and  spoke  some  words  in  Guarani. 

"It  appears,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  said  his  host,  ''that 
dinner-time  is  approaching.  I  will  show  you  the  room 
which  has  been  prepared  for  you,  which  I  trust  will  please 
you." 

CHAPTER  III 

IMPROMPTUS  AND  PELOTITAS 

HAWTHORNE  followed  his  host  across  the  patio. 
There  he  was  shown  into  another  room,  almost  as 
large  and  not  quite  so  dim  as  the  room  from  which  he 
had  come.  The  floor  also  was  of  red  brick,  browned  by 
continual  rubbing  and  smoothed  to  almost  a  polished  sur 
face.  In  the  middle  of  the  room  was  a  heavy  and  solid 
table  of  dark  wood.  In  one  corner  was  a  small  bed,  a  very* 
small  bed.  Its  counterpane  was  of  crimson  damask;  the 
turned-over  edge  of  the  sheet  of  a  cambric  so  fine  as  to 
be  almost  transparent  to  the  glow  of  the  coverlet.  Its 
pillow-canes  were  of  delicate  embroidered  lawn.  Across 
the  opposite  corner  was  swung  a  very  large  hammock, 
deeply  fringed  along  both  sides ;  hammock  and  fringe  alike 
of  a  staring  pattern  of  contrasted  blue  and  yellow,  primi 
tive  and  barbaric,  but  astonishingly  pleasing  in  effect. 


IMPROMPTUS   AND    PELOTITAS      25* 

There  were  two  rush-bottomed  chairs,  a  sort  of  stool  or 
low  stand,  leather-covered,  and  not  a  trace  of  other  furni 
ture  in  the  big,  white-washed  apartment.  The  jalousies  of 
split  cane  let  some  light  filter  through  from  the  outer  glare. 

"We  shall  have  to  try  to  make  you  comfortable  without 
your  effects,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  Mayorga  said.  "My 
servants  have  not  yet  fetched  your  boxes. " 

"My  boxes?"  Hawthorne  exclaimed  questioningly. 

"Precisely/'  Mayorga  explained.  "Few  vessels  reach 
Asuncion.  There  could  be  no  doubt  as  to  that  which 
brought  you,  nor  as  to  its  owner.  "When  I  spoke  to  Bopi, 
part  of  what  you  did  not  catch  was  an  order  sent  to  Senor 
Isasi's  warehouse  for  your  possessions.  Don  Meliton  is  my 
good  friend.  By  this  time  your  property  is  in  my  servant's 
hands  and  on  its  way  here ;  meanwhile  we  shall  have  to  do 
our  best  without  your  possessions.  When  you  have  washed 
we  shall  have  dinner. " 

A  mulatto  woman,  bare-foot,  bare-armed,  clad  (appar 
ently  clad  only)  in  a  loose  gown  of  white  cotton  homespun, 
loosely  belted  at  the  waist,  entered  the  room,  carrying  a 
large  silver  basin  balanced  on  her  left  hand,  and  a  hand 
some  silver  ewer  in  her  right.  She  extended  the  bowl 
towards  Hawthorne.  He  comprehendingly  stretched  his. 
hands  and  she  poured  water  from  the  pitcher.  He  looked 
about  for  a  towel.  Without  setting  down  the  pitcher  or 
basin  she  twisted  herself  sideways  towards  him,  her  elbow 
crooked  outward.  Hanging  from  it  he  saw,  almost  trailing* 
to  the  floor,  a  greyish  scarf,  exquisitely  delicate  and 
beautifully  fringed  at  the  ends,  with  fine  lace-work  fin 
ishing  a  band  of  rich  embroidery. 

Hawthorne  hesitated. 

"Is  this  really  a  towel?"  he  asked. 

"Such  are  our  Paraguayan  towels,  Senor  Don  Guiller- 
mo,"  Mayorga  answered,  his  tone  somewhat  nettled. 

Hawthorne,  drying  his  hands,  remarked: 

*  *  I  have  seen  scarfs  far  less  fine  and  handsome  than  this 
readily  sold  in  Boston  for  fifty  dollars,  which  is  fifty 
piastres.  In  Philadelphia  one  might  fetch  half  as  much 
again." 

His  host  looked  both  mollified  and  amused. 

"Doubtless,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  replied,  "you 
have  in  your  Philadelphia  and  Boston  articles  scarcely 


2,6  EL   SUPREMO 

valued  there  for  which  we  at  Asuncion  would  eagerly  offer 
as  much  as  a  hundred  piastres.  You  may  even  have  such 
things  unregarded  in  your  boxes,  which  I  trust  you  will 
find  in  this  room  when  you  return  for  your  siesta  after 
dinner. ' ' 

Crossing  the  court  again  Hawthorne  followed  his  host 
to  a  room  on  the  left  of  the  entrance-archway,  a  room  that 
seemed  immense.  Like  the  others,  it  was  dim,  little  light 
coming  through  the  jalousies,  and  not  much  through  the 
door  opening  under  the  arcade  into  the  patio.  By  this 
light  Hawthorne  made  out  a  tahle,  its  legs  like  clumsy 
posts,  showing  under  the  deep-tasselled  fringe  of  the  heavily 
embroidered  native  cotton  cloth  that  covered  its  vast  ex 
panse  of  top.  On  the  table  were  two  open-work  silver  trays 
loaded  with  the  native  bread,  made  of  maize  or  manioc,  and 
called  chipd,  and  a  huge  silver  platter  of  smoking,  steam 
ing,  almost  boiling  olla  podrida,  flanked  by  four  sparkling 
crystal  carafes  of  clear  water,  one  toward  each  corner  of 
the  table,  which  was  set  with  fully  eighteen  covers ;  entirely 
of  silver,  not  only  the  spoons  and  forks,  but  also  the  knife- 
handles,  plates  and  dishes. 

Beyond  the  table,  facing  him,  stood  a  formidably  large 
family  group,  whom  Hawthorne  had  seen  rise  as  he  entered 
the  door.  He  was  presented  in  Spanish  as  the  Ingles  del 
America  del  Norte,  the  Englishman  from  North  America. 
In  turn  he  met  Dona  Engracia  Mayorga,  his  host's  wife; 
Dona  Gertrudis  Balaguer  and  Dona  Inez  Romero,  his  sis 
ters,  their  husbands,  Don  Arturo  Balaguer  and  Don  Gil 
Bomero,  and  Mayorga 's  sons,  Don  Carmelo  and  Don 
Bafael,  his  daughters,  Senoritas  Carlota  and  Leite 
Mayorga. 

''And  these,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo, ' '  his  host  wound  up, 
waving  his  hand  to  the  group  of  children,  half  in  the  back 
ground,  "are  the  rest  of  my  children  with  my  sisters' 
children." 

The  six  or  seven  indicated  stood  by  a  side  table,  upon 
which  were  silver  trays  piled  with  watermelons,  musk- 
melons  and  oranges;  and  epergnes,  also  of  silver,  loaded 
with  bananas,  lemons,  peaches  and  fruits  which  Hawthorne 
did  not  know. 

The  children  made  a  pretty  group,  grave  and  shy,  but 
self-possessed.  The  girls  were  garbed,  like  their  mothers, 


IMPROMPTUS   AND    PELOTITAS      27 

in  simple  white  cotton  gowns  such  as  Hawthorne  had  seen. 
on  every  woman  he  had  encountered  since  he  reached  Asun 
cion.  The  only  difference  was  that  on  a  child  the  tupoi 
was  belted  by  a  gay  silk  sash,  while  their  elders  wore  parti 
colored  embroidered  girdles.  The  sole  distinction  between 
the  garb  of  the  women  he  had  seen  on  his  way  from  the 
harbour-side  and  the  attire  of  the  ladies  was,  apparently, 
that  for  the  women  of  the  commonalty,  the  tupoi  was  their 
only  garment,  while  their  betters  wore  some  light  under 
clothing.  Hawthorne  realized  that  he  was  in  a  corsetless 
world  where  social  inequality  made  little  difference  in 
dress.  The  gowns  of  these  refined  gentry  were  scarcely 
finer  than  the  tupoi  of  the  octoroon  girl  he  had  passed  on 
the  street  or  of  the  mulatto  girl  who  had  acted  as  human 
towel-rack  for  him. 

The  boys,  like  the  men,  wore  long-tailed,  huge-flapped, 
vast-pocketed,  many-buttoned  coats  of  the  extravagant  cut 
exhibited  by  that  of  the  head  of  the  family.  All  the  boys 
were  handsome,  every  girl  lovely. 

So  for  that  matter  were  the  elder  women.  All  had  black 
hair  and  brown  eyes,  fine,  lustrous  brown  eyes.  The  seilori- 
tas  were  beauties,  the  matrons  noble  and  personable  ladies. 

The  greetings  and  compliments  over,  Doila  Engracia 
indicated  they  were  to  take  their  places  at  the  table.  It 
was  fenced  in,  one  might  almost  say  palisaded,  by  the  stiff, 
straight  backs  of  the  leather-bottomed  chairs,  the  carved 
finials  of  whose  uprights  stood  full  five  feet  from  the  floor. 

Then,  to  Hawthorne's  amazement,  the  gathering  un 
dressed  for  dinner.  The  ladies  drew  the  loose  kerchiefs 
from  about  their  necks  and  handed  them  to  the  servantsf 
five  or  six  of  whom  had  entered  the  room  behind  Hawthorne 
and  his  host.  These  also  took  the  big  coats,  and  long, 
crimson,  green  or  blue  embroidered  waist-coats  of  the  men 
and  boys,  who  at  once  threw  open  the  necks  and  rolled  up 
to  their  elbows  the  cambric  sleeves  of  their  befrilled,  be- 
laced  and  embroidered  shirts. 

As  Hawthorne,  imitating  his  hosts,  handed  his  outer  gar 
ments  to  an  attendant,  he  perceived  with  something  of  a 
start  that  she  was  a  mulatto  girl  of  about  fourteen,  entirely 
without  clothing. 

He  glanced  about. 

His  eyes  by  this  time  were  entirely  used  to  the  gloom. 


28  EL   SUPREMO 

The  waiters,  boys  and  girls  all,  and  all  mulattoes,  had  not  a 
thread  of  clothing  among  the  eight  of  them. 

This,  he  perceived  at  once,  was  evidently  the  custom  of 
Asuncion.  For  Miss  Leite  and  Miss  Carlota,  between 
whom  he  was  seated,  noticed  the  saddle-coloured  skins  of 
their  servitors  no  more  than  if  they  had  been  clad  like  them 
selves  or  the  five  nurse  girls,  who,  each  carrying  a  small 
child,  had  stood  in  a  group  in  one  corner. 

These,  after  the  family  were  seated  at  table,  carried 
their  charges  out  of  the  room,  one  baby  squalling  vigorously 
as  it  lost  sight  of  its  mother. 

Everybody  was  helped  to  a  share  of  the  olla  podrida  and 
for  a  time  the  silence  was  broken  only  by  faint  sounds  of 
eating,  punctuated  by  clickings  of  spoons  or  forks. 

The  servants  stood  or  loitered  about  the  room,  barefoot 
and  noiseless,  until  the  olla  had  nearly  vanished.  Then 
they  languidly  removed  the  plates  and  platters.  Don 
Vicente  explained  to  his  family  that  their  guest,  Don  Guil- 
lermo  Atorno,  was  a  friend  of  Don  Francisco  Candioti,  and 
was,  moreover,  of  special  interest  as  being  the  first  native 
of  North  America  who  had  ever  visited  Asuncion.  Don 
Arturo,  a  very  plump,  youngish  man,  with  curly  black 
hair  and  sleepy,  humorous  eyes  looking  out  of  a  handsome 
placid  face,  asked  civilly  about  the  health  and  prosperity 
of  Don  Francisco  Candioti.  Hawthorne  assured  him  that 
Don  Francisco  was  as  well  and  vigorous  as  possible  and 
as  incredibly  prosperous  as  ever. 

"Does  he  still  convoy  his  yearly  product  of  mules  to 
Potosf, "  Don  Arturo  enquired,  "or  has  he  come  to  entrust 
it  to  one  of  his  sons?" 

' '  He  went  himself  last  year, '  *  Hawthorne  answered, ' '  and 
I  heard  him  remark  that  he  was  preparing  to  go  with  the 
next  batch." 

"Four  thousand  mules  a  year  still?"  Don  Arturo 
queried. 

"Six  thousand  last  year,"  Hawthorne  informed  him, 
"and  five  hundred  bullocks." 

"Then  perhaps  his  yearly  increase  of  property,"  Don 
Vicente  put  in,  "amounts  now  to  four  new  estancias  in 
stead  of  three  as  of  old." 

"He  bought  five  new  estates  last  year  with  his  profits," 
Hawthorne  replied,  "and  showed  me  in  the  course  of  our 


IMPROMPTUS   AND    PELOTITAS      29 

rides  together  five  or  six  which  he  meant  to  purchase  next 
year." 

"He  still  goes  by  Santiago,  Tucuman  and  Salta?"  Don 
Arturo  suggested,  ruminatingly. 

"So  I  believe  I  was  told,"  Hawthorne  answered. 

"Still  keeps  his  men  awake?"  Don  Arturo  pursued. 

"And  himself,"  Hawthorne  returned. 

"Ah,"  Don  Vicente  beamed,  "my  good  friend  Candioti 
clings  still  to  his  pet  fiction,  I  conjecture,  that  he  never 
sleeps?" 

"I  was  told,"  Hawthorne  confirmed,  "that  no  one  had 
ever  seen  him  asleep,  that  he  occupies  at  night  when  at 
home  a  room  entirely  to  himself,  without  any  bed,  and  that 
no  one,  servant,  son  or  friend,  had  ever  caught  him  uncon 
scious  or  so  much  as  seen  him  in  his  hammock." 

Don  Vicente  smiled  and  shook  his  handsome  head. 

4 '  The  foibles  of  men ! "  he  commented.  ' '  Fancy  so  simple 
and  direct  a  soul  as  Don  Francisco  nursing  and  cherishing 
so  transparent  a  fable." 

Don  Gil,  a  small  and  very  dapper  man,  his  stubby  black 
hair  standing  erect  like  bristles  of  a  brush,  his  eyebrows 
mere  lines  of  jet  below  his  shining  forehead,  then  re 
marked  : 

"We  question  Don  Guillermo  about  our  great  estanciero 
of  whom  we  hear  as  often,  sometimes,  as  every  six  or  seven 
months ;  we  ask  him  nothing  of  his  own  country,  of  which 
none  of  us  has  ever  heard  so  much  as  a  word  beyond 
its  name." 

At  this  point  two  big  mulatto  slaves,  barefoot,  clad  in 
loose  shirts  and  trousers  of  white  cotton  homespun,  bore 
in  and  set  upon  the  table  a  huge  roast,  fully  thirty  pounds 
in  weight,  of  came  con  cuero,  ribs  of  beef  wrapped  up  and 
tightly  sewn  in  an  adherent  flap  of  hide.  So  roasted  the 
newly-killed  beef  was  extraordinarily  juicy,  tender  and 
savoury.  While  it  was  being  divided  and  allotted,  Haw 
thorne  was  subjected  to  a  bombardment  of  questions  about 
his  native  land.  Don  Gil  was  astonished  to  hear  that 
George  Washington  was  dead,  more  astonished  to  learn 
that  he  had  been  dead  fifteen  years.  Don  Arturo  was 
amazed  when  assured  that  Philadelphia  had  eighty  thou 
sand  inhabitants,  New  York  sixty  thousand,  and  Boston 
twenty-five  thousand. 


30  EL   SUPREMO 

"What!"  he  exclaimed,  "a  city  eight  times  as  great  as 
Asuncion;  another  six  times  as  great  and  a  third  with  ten 
times  as  many  persons  as  we  have  families!  Yours  is  in 
deed  a  great  nation,  Seiior  Don  Guillermo ! ' ' 

The  interest  of  the  ladies  was  aroused  by  these  strange 
and  unexpected  pieces  of  information  about  an  almost 
legendary  land.  Dona  Engracia  enquired  about  spinning 
and  weaving  and  was  fascinated,  incredulous  and  en 
chanted  at  Hawthorne's  account  of  the  cotton-gin,  which 
appeared  to  her  a  miracle  equally  incredible  and  delightful. 
Doila  Gertrudis  put  questions  about  women's  dress  and 
Was  plainly  scandalized  when  told  that  women  wore  bonnets 
in  church.  Dona  Inez  asked  about  cooking  and  was  rapt 
into  dreamy  ecstasy  while  hearing  of  succotash,  clam-bakes, 
planked  shad,  scrapple,  terrapin  stew,  pumpkin  pies,  egg- 
nog  and  cream  ices. 

Meanwhile  the  beef  had  been  removed  and  the  family 
had  done  full  justice  to  the  third  course  of  roast  and  boiled 
fowls,  pigeons,  partridges  and  several  hashes  and  stews, 
unrecognisable  to  Hawthorne,  who,  already  replete  with 
olla  and  beef,  had  even  after  his  months  of  voyaging  less 
appetite  than  his  indolent,  home-keeping  hosts. 

He  had  noticed  an  empty  chair,  and  now,  in  the  midst 
of  this  languidly  consumed  superabundance,  there  entered 
a  tall,  broad-shouldered  young  man,  very  hot  and  perspir 
ing  profusely. 

"It  is  true "  he  began,  when  Don  Vicente  cut  him 

off. 

"We  have  a  guest,  my  son,"  he  said  reprovingly,  and 
the  big  youth  instantly  stood  silent. 

Hawthorne  rose  and  was  presented  to 

* '  Don  Desiderio  Mayorga,  my  eldest  son,  henceforth  your 
Very  good  friend,  Seiior  Don  Guillermo." 

Don  Desiderio,  in  spite  of  the  glow  of  heat  he  was  in, 
was  deadly  pale  all  over  his  swarthy  countenance.  His 
greeting  to  Hawthorne  was  gracious  in  words,  but  con 
strained  in  tone.  His  voice  shook,  almost  broke;  his  lips 
twitched ;  he  was  plainly  labouring  under  great  excitement. 
He  sweated  even  in  the  cool  gloom,  and  wrenched  himself 
free  of  his  soaked  and  clinging  blue  coat  and  scarlet  vest, 
as  the  mulatto  boy  helped  him  off  with  them.  Pantingly  he 
unhooked  his  sword-belt  and  handed  it  to  the  boy,  pantingly 


IMPROMPTUS   AND    PELOTITAS      31 

lie  rolled  up  his  almost  dripping  shirt-sleeves  and  opened 
the  throat  of  his  draggled  shirt. 

i 'May  I  speak,  father?"  he  enquired. 

"Don  Guillermo, ' '  Mayorga  replied,  "is  a  friend  of 
Don  Nicolas  Herrera,  of  Don  Pascual  Echagiie  of  Santa 
Fe,  of  Don  Esteban  Maria  Perrichon,  of  Don  Francisco 
Candioti.  He  is  our  friend.  He  is  one  of  ourselves.  You 
may  speak  as  to  me  alone.  But  first  be  seated,  cool  your 
self  with  a  draft  of  water,  refresh  yourself  with  wine.  Be 
calm.  Let  us  all  be  calm. ' ' 

Don  Desiderio  seated  himself,  gulped  a  mouthful  of  wine, 
swallowed  a  tall  goblet  of  water,  and  wiped  his  forehead. 

All  eyes  were  on  him. 

No  one  spoke. 

Hawthorne  could  hear  the  dissonant  breathing  of  the 
men.  He  almost  fancied  he  could  hear  the  thumping  hearts 
of  the  beautiful  girls  on  either  side  of  him. 

"It  is  true,"  Don  Desiderio  began.  "Alberto  has  been 
recaptured.  It  was  he  whom  the  lancers  conducted  past 
this  house :  he,  that  starved  and  dusty  scarecrow  crucified 
and  chained  to  a  jolting  mule.  The  lancers  took  him  into 
the  patio  of  the  Cabildo.  From  Villarino's  office  I  myself 
saw  Zorilla  standing  over  him  while  his  men  riveted  a 
"barra  de  grillos  on  his  ankles.  He  is  in  the  middle  cell  of 
the  second  row  of  dungeons  under  the  cavalry  barrack. ' ' 

"Oh,  for  the  blood! "  Don  Gil  burst  out. 

"Silence,  Cunado,"  Don  Vicente  interrupted  almost 
sternly.  "Say  nothing  rash.  Folly  is  no  friend  at  the 
best  of  times;  now  we  need  all  our  wisdom." 

' '  How  did  you  succeed  in  getting  so  near  ? ' '  Don  Arturo 
queried. 

"I  pretended  business  with  Villarino,"  Don  Desiderio 
replied.  * '  He  is  everybody 's  friend  and  will  say  nothing. ' ' 

"Did  you  learn  anything  additional?"  his  father  ques 
tioned  him. 

"Only  that  he  was  captured  near  Yuty,"  Don  Desiderio 
answered. 

' '  Fifty  leagues, ' '  Dona  Engracia  half  whispered.  ' '  Bare 
back  on  a  mule,  in  chains,  poor  lad ! ? ' 

Her  lovely  eyes  were  full  of  tears. 

"You  must  know,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  his  host  ex 
plained,  "that  we  are  concerned  about  two  young  gentle- 


32  EL   SUPREMO 

men  of  Corrientes,  Don  Alberto  Chilaber  and  his  brother 
Don  Diego.  They  are  of  good  family  and  property.  As 
they  were  left  orphans  when  very  young,  they  have  no  rela 
tions  nearer  than  their  godfather,  Don  Pascual  Eehagiie,  of 
this  city,  cousin  of  that  Don  Pascual  Eehagiie  whom  you 
met  in  Santa  Fe.  These  young  brothers  embarked  in  trade 
in  Corrientes  and  considerably  augmented  their  patrimony, 
for  they  were  known  to  be  favoured  by  General  Artigas, 
and  therefore  whenever  his  troops  captured  and  sacked 
Corrientes,  which  has  happened  about  four  times  a  year, 
his  officers  protected  the  Chilaber  house  and  warehouses. 
Their  property  thus  suffered  no  losses  by  war  and  they 
were  capable  merchants. 

"  About  six  months  ago  they  decided  to  return  to  Asun 
cion.  The  very  morning  on  which  they  arrived  here  they 
had  some  difficulty  with  the  custom-house  inspectors.  The 
elder,  Don  Alberto,  remained  on  the  quay  with  their  goods, 
the  younger,  Don  Diego,  went  to  the  Government  House 
to  ask  an  audience  with  the  Dictator.  He  was  ushered  into 
the  Dictator's  library.  Hardly  had  a  moment  passed  when, 
the  Dictator  summoned  his  guards,  bade  them  seize  Don 
Diego,  accusing  him  of  intending  to  assassinate  him,  and 
ordered  him  thrown  into  one  of  the  cells  under  the  guard 
house,  where  he  has  ever  since  been  confined.  As  soon  as 
a  guard  could  reach  the  landing-stairs  Don  Alberto  was 
also  arrested  and  confined  in  the  general  prison.  Their 
property  was  confiscated. 

"Don  Alberto  escaped  from  the  cuartel  two  months  ago 
and  we  hoped  he  had  made  good  his  escape  to  Candelaria 
or  Itaty  by  this  time.  We  behold  him  brought  back, 
and  learn  that  he  is  in  fetters  in  an  underground 
cell  beside  his  brother.  Can  you  wonder  that  we  are 
grieved  ? ; ' 

"I  cannot,"  Hawthorne  declared,  "and  I  do  not.  Was 
neither  tried  ?  Were  they  given  no  opportunity  to  defend 
themselves,  to  reply  to  the  witnesses  or  meet  the  evidence 
against  them?  Was  no  judgment  passed  on  them?" 

"Alas!"  Don  Vicente  gloomed,  "you  speak  of  the  cus 
toms  of  a  vanished  epoch  or  of  another  world.  Our  Dic 
tator's  order  to  arrest  is  the  only  judgment  now  passed 
in  Paraguay ;  his  suspicion  the  only  evidence  and  the  only 
witnees  necessary ;  his  silent  thought  the  only  trial  any  man 


IMPROMPTUS   AND    PELOTITAS      33 

now  has.  All  this  may  be  for  the  best,  as  many  good  men 
say  sincerely,  but  of  a  certainty  it  is  true." 

Hawthorne  did  not  reply ;  a  miserable  silence  settled  over 
the  table. 

Don  Vicente  made  an  effort. 

"We  forget  ourselves/'  he  said.  "We  have  a  guest. 
We  must  not  annoy  him  with  our  troubles.  We  are  hun 
gry  "  (Hawthorne,  even  in  the  midst  of  his  sympathy,  mar 
velled  at  people  who  could  be  hungry  after  such  portentous 
feeding).  "We  have  an  abundance  of  the  best;  let  us  put 
aside  our  griefs  and  enjoy  the  good  gifts  of  a  bountiful 
God.  Let  us  eat  and  be  cheerful. ' ' 

They  attempted  to  obey;  all  attempted  to  obey.  The 
servants  brought  olla,  beef,  fowl,  pigeon,  partridge  and 
stews  for  Don  Desiderio,  who  indeed  managed  to  swallow 
some  mouthfuls,  which  plainly  revolted  him.  The  rest 
made  an  attempt  at  conversation,  which  subsided  into  whis- 
pered  dialogues  and  died  away  in  monosyllables. 

Hawthorne  had  had  leisure  to  observe  his  neighbours. 
They  were  as  alike  as  twins,  sleek  black  hair,  serene,  smooth 
foreheads,  pencilled  black  brows,  big,  melting  brown  eyes, 
long  black  lashes,  warm,  clear-brown  cheeks,  ruddy  and 
plump;  small  ears  set  far  back  and  low,  little  rose-bud 
mouths  curved  and  pouting,  the  upper  lips  almost  too 
curled  and  short ;  chins  round  and  full. 

While  their  elders  talked  he  had  had  no  chance  to  ad 
dress  them. 

Now  in  the  half  silence  he  ventured  to  remark,  whether 
to  Miss  Leite  or  Miss  Carlota  he  could  not  guess,  that 
undressing  for  dinner  was  as  delightful  as  novel  to  him. 

"Yes,"  she  placidly  rejoined.  "We  always  undress  for 
dinner  here,  except  when  a  south-east  gale  is  blowing.  We 
women  have  an  easier  time  than  the  men,  our  clothes  are 
so  much  lighter.  But  gentlemen's  coats  are  such  fearfully 
big  and  heavy  affairs.  No  one  could  eat  olla  this  weather 
with  a  coat  and  waistcoat  on.  He  would  suffocate.  Opened 
collars  and  sleeves  rolled  up  must  be  a  great  relief,  too. 
We  are  always  glad  to  get  rid  of  our  kerchiefs." 

Hawthorne  surveyed  the  soft,  round  throat,  bosom  bare 
to  the  simple  narrow  satin  ribbon  that  confined  the  low 
neck  of  the  white  gown,  the  unperturbed  maiden  breast 
rising  and  falling  with  the  senorita's  even  breathing;  and, 


34  EL   SUPREMO 

admiring  her  looks,  admired  even  more  her  self-possession 
and  her  complete  naturalness. 

He  looked  to  the  other  side. 

"Carlota  really  wants  to  ask  you  about  girls  in  your 
country,"  Senorita  Leite  remarked,  obligingly  and  tact 
fully  putting  him  right  as  to  names.  ' '  Are  they  like  us  ? ' ' 

"Seldom  so  pretty,'7  Hawthorne  blurted  out,  before  he 
thought. 

The  placid  maidens  took  the  compliment  unruffled. 

Then,  to  Hawthorne 's  astonishment,  in  the  most  matter* 
of -fact  tone,  Carlota  declaimed : 

"Poor  Desiderio  is  so  distressed 
He  cannot  eat.     He's  wretched  and  depressed. 
I'll  wake  him  up  and  stir  up  all  the  rest." 

She  broke  off  a  morsel  from  the  piece  of  chipd  bread  by  her 
plate  and  began  to  roll  it  into  a  pellet. 

Leite  did  the  like,  declaiming  in  similar  even  tones : 

"Poor  Brother,  he  is  not  the  only  one, 
We're  all  distracted.     Something  must  be  done. 
Let's  flip  him  on  the  ear  and  start  some  fun." 

Carlota,  eyeing  the  pellet  she  was  rolling  between  her 
thumb  and  finger,  instantly  replied: 

"A  stinging  ear  is  sure  to  disconcert  him, 
And  that's  the  very  best  way  to  divert  him. 
He  will  get  angry  but  that  will  not  hurt  him." 

She  had  completed  to  her  satisfaction  the  little  ball  and 
dexterously  flipped  it  from  her  thumb  and  finger  so  that 
it  flew  across  the  table  and  hit  her  brother  on  the  lobe  of 
his  right  ear.  Instantly,  as  it  were,  automatically,  he  began 
to  roll  a  bread-pellet,  remarking: 

"You  think  you're  smart  to  give  my  ear  a  whack, 
As  if  nobody  else  could  have  the  knack. 
I'll  make  your  ear  smart  when  I  hit  you  back." 

The  pellet  went  wide  and  struck  Rafael,  sitting  next  to 
Oarlota.  He  retorted  in  kind,  Carlota,  who  had  been  aimed 


IMPROMPTUS   AND   PELOT1TAS      35 

at,  flipping  a  pellet  at  the  same  instant.  As  each  unin 
tentional  hit  drew  a  new  participant  into  the  game  the 
bread-bullets  flew  in  all  directions  across  the  table.  Every 
body,  from  Miss  Leite  to  her  stately  father,  joined  in. 
Desiderio  really  began  to  eat,  as  much  as  he  could  for  roll 
ing,  aiming  and  dodging.  Giggles  greeted  each  bad  shot, 
applause  each  hit.  In  a  few  moments  the  whole  family 
was  in  a  gale  of  merriment,  the  Chilabers  appeared  for 
gotten,  everybody  pelted  everybody  else,  and  the  room  was 
filled  with  a  hail  of  pellets  through  which  Don  Vicente 
declaimed : 

"We  must  remember  that  we  have  a  guest  with  us. 
It  don't  seem  fair  to  put  him  to  the  test  with  us, 
But  he'll  get  hit  by  and  by  like  all  the  rest  with  us." 

This  concentrated  the  attention  of  the  company  on 
Hawthorne. 

Don  Gil  Romero  and  Don  Arturo  Balaguer  turned  their 
artillery  on  him,  in  a  spirit  of  disarming  good-fellowship. 

Both  missed,  starting  a  tornado  of  jeers,  but  Dofia  Inez 
Romero,  roguishly  smiling  at  him,  hit  Hawthorne  fair 
under  the  eye. 

A  gust  of  laughter  applauded  the  hit  and  all  shouted. 

"You  must  retort,  Don  Guillermo.  You  must  join  in. 
You  must  hit  her  in  return.  Show  him,  Carlota." 

And  Dofia  Inez  Romero  declaimed : 

"It's  graceful  of  you  not  to  make  a  fuss 
Or  be  displeased  or  argue  or  discuss, 
Just  try  to  hit  me  back — be  one  of  us." 

Hawthorne,  by  no  means  averse  to  that  part  of  his  lesson, 
found  himself  intent  upon  the  fairy  fingers  demonstrating 
how  to  roll  a  "pelotita"  and  how  to  impel  one. 

The  rolling  Hawthorne  found  easy  and  the  shooting 
much  like  playing  marbles,  the  positions  of  fingers  and 
thumb  as  in  that  game  with  similar  variations. 

But  to  impel  a  pelotita  at  charming  Dofia  Inez  Romero, 
who  had  hit  him,  though  she  smiled  coquettishly  at  him, 
Hawthorne  found  anything  but  easy  to  attempt.  To  shy  a 
bread  pellet  at  a  lovely  lady  seated  by  her  husband  was 


36  EL   SUPREMO 

contrary  to  all  his  New  England  ideas  of  propriety.  The 
whole  table,  however,  laughed,  applauded  and  encouraged 
him,  until  he  made  the  effort.  He  tried  his  best  to  miss 
her,  but  hit  her  on  her  tiny  ear,  just  above  the  pearl  ear 
ring. 

The  applause  fairly  deafened  him  and  shouts  arose  of: 
"A  verse,  a  verse,  too!  Be  one  of  us  all  round!" 

And  Dona  Encarnacion  declaimed : 

"You  hit  a  matron  with  your  maiden  shy, 
Come  make  a  verse,  you  only  have  to  try, 
You'll  do  it  just  as  easily  as  I." 

Hawthorne,  struggling  between  the  feeling  that  it  ought 
to  be  easy  and  that  it  was  impossible,  began : 

UA.  foreigner  can't  hope  to  rhyme  in  Spanish " 


There  he  stuck ;  crimson. 

Don  Arturo  placidly  completed  the  stanza  for  him. 

"But  if  his  bashfulness  he  could  but  banish, 
All  difficulties  would  that  instant  vanish." 


"We'll  let  you  off  with  one-third  of  a  verse  and  consider 
that  enough,"  Dofia  Encarnacion  reassured  him.  "Now 
you  are  one  of  us. ' ' 

"Now  you  are  one  of  us,"  they  all  shouted  and  made 
him  the  target  of  a  fusillade  to  which  he  responded  hesi 
tatingly  until  Dona  Gertrudis  hit  him  stingingly  on  the 
nose.  Then  he  really  aimed  at  his  tormentors  and  scored 
some  hits  which  were  greeted  with  shouts  of  applause  and 
gales  of  laughter.  All  were  as  gay  as  if  the  Chilabers  had 
never  existed ;  as  if  dictatorships  and  oppression  were  non 
existent. 

"I  don't  understand,"  Hawthorne  remarked,  "how 
you  can  make  verses  so  quickly.  You  must  be  the  most 
wonderful  family  on  earth." 

Miss  Leite  instantly  replied : 


IMPROMPTUS   AND   PELOTITAS      37 

"In  a  grand  match  we'd  hardly  come  out  winners, 
For  all  Asuncion  families,  saints  and  sinners, 
Can  make  up  offhand  verses  at  their  dinners." 

"Is  the  faculty  so  general ?"  Hawthorne  exclaimed. 
"Universal,"  Carlota  declared. 

And  from  across  the  table  Dona  Gertrudis,  overhearing, 
declaimed : 

"It  may  have  started  at  the  tower  of  Babel, 
At  any  rate  all  Spanish  folk  are  able 
To  bandy  little  rhymes  like  these  at  table." 

When  the  fish,  served  last,  according  to  Spanish  custom, 
was  brought  in,  all  attacked  it  with  avidity.  Even  Haw 
thorne,  surfeited  as  he  had  thought  himself,  found  his 
relish  revive  at  the  mere  sight  of  a  huge  and  magnificent 
pacu,  as  they  called  it,  a  kind  of  turbot,  fully  a  yard  long, 
broiled  brown  and  exhaling  a  most  appetizing  savour. 

All  partook  as  if  they  had  not  had  a  mouthful  before 
and  ate  amid  a  hail  of  pelotitas,  which  flew  about  until  the 
floor  was  not  merely  peppered  with  them,  but  actually, 
square  yards  of  it,  hidden  under  them. 

When  the  fruit,  tarts,  candied  sweetmeats,  silver  pitchers 
of  milk,  little  bowls  of  honey  and  platters  of  new  cheese 
were  set  on  the  table  their  welcome  was  rather  languid. 
The  bombardment  ebbed.  The  girl  waiters  each  brought  a 
basin  and  towel.  All  dipped  their  fingers  into  a  basin  and 
rinsed  and  dried  their  hands. 

Then  the  cigars  were  brought.  These  woke  the  company 
to  renewed  interest.  Everybody  took  one  except  the  senor- 
itas,  and,  when  the  taper  was  passed  around,  everybody 
smoked.  Hawthorne  was  dumbfounded  to  behold  not  only 
the  stately  Dona  Engracia  and  winsome  Dona  Gertrudis, 
but  even  pretty  Dona  Inez,  puffing  long,  even  enormous, 
cigars.  They  puffed  serenely.  He  acknowledged  to  him 
self  the  perfection  of  the  mild,  sweet  tobacco,  but  it  seemed 
to  him  a  profanation  for  ladies  to  smoke,  especially  to 
smoke  such  gigantic  cheroots,  while  the  men,  like  himself, 
were  provided  with  cigars  of  very  moderate  proportions. 
He  was  uneasy  in  spite  of  himself  and  asked  Miss  Carlota : 

"Why  are  the  ladies'  cigars  so  much  larger  than  these 
we  have  ? ' ' 


38  EL   SUPREMO 

"Oh,"  Carlota  replied,  "we  like  them  better  that  way." 

' '  But  you  do  not  smoke ! ' '  he  exclaimed. 

"Not  in  company,"  the  little  lady  rejoined  sedately. 
"We  are  not  allowed  to  smoke  yet  except  in  our  own 
rooms.  But  we  always  smoke  before  our  siesta,  sometimes 
two  or  three  cigars,  just  like  mother's." 

Hawthorne  felt  inwardly  shocked.  He  could  not  imagine 
the  big,  coarse,  blotchy  cylinders  between  those  pearly 
teeth,  separating  those  ruby  lips,  distorting  those  tiny, 
cupid's  bow  mouths. 

To  him,  even  the  elder  ladies  appeared,  as  it  were,  dese 
crated  by  their  smoking. 

They  not  only  smoked,  but  with  elbows  on  the  table,  uni 
versally  selected  toothpicks  from  one  or  the  other  of  the 
several  glasses  holding  supplies  of  carefully  cut  wooden 
splints,  all  calmly  and  leisurely  picked  their  teeth.  Even 
so  employed,  listless,  lolling,  monosyllabic,  Senoritas  Leite 
and  Carlota  were  charming  and  unquestionably  aristocratic. 

Aristocratic  even  in  the  yawns,  which  grew  more  fre 
quent  until  Dona  Engracia  rose  and  remarked  that  every 
body  would  be  better  after  a  siesta. 


CHAPTEE  IV 

WARNINGS 

HAWTHOBNE  found  in  his  room  the  same  mulatto 
woman  who  had  brought  him  the  water  and  towel 
before  dinner.  He  was  amazed  to  see,  set,  spread  out  or 
piled  up  on  his  table,  goblets,  three  bottles  of  spirits  and 
six  of  wine,  a  bowl  of  glittering  panales,  another  of  lemons, 
a  carafe  of  water,  a  tray  of  biscuits,  two  of  fruit,  and  a 
box  of  cigars.  The  idea  of  eating  anything  after  such  a 
superabundant  feast  staggered  him. 

He  was  pleased  to  find  his  battered  hair  trunks,  hide 
catch-alls,  raw-hide  bales,  and  plank  boxes  carefully  be 
stowed  along  one  wall. 

The  woman  motioned  toward  the  hammock.  Hawthorne 
disposed  himself  in  it.  She  then  placed  in  his  hand  a  broad, 
Ted  silk  ribbon,  went  out  and  shut  the  door. 

Hawthorne  saw  that  the  ribbon  was  fastened  to  a  ring- 


WARNINGS  39 

bolt  in  the  white-washed  wall.  He  comprehended.  Set 
tling  himself  in  the  knotless,  broad-meshed  hammock,  ad 
justing  his  head  on  the  cool,  grass-cloth-covered  pillow,  he 
tugged  gently  at  the  ribbon,  tugged  rhythmically,  swung 
at°each  pull  softly  in  a  wider  and  wider  arc  ;  pulled  m  a 
drowse,  in  a  dream,  and  so  fell  asleep. 

When  he  woke  he  was  naturally  very  thirsty.  After  a 
long  draft  of  water  from  the  carafe  he  turned  to  the  silver 
basin  set  on  the  leather-covered  stool,  with  the  silver  pitcher 
on  the  floor  between  that  and  a  big,  fat  red  earthenware 
water-jar.  He  splashed  water  over  his  head,  face  and 
wrists  until  he  was  thoroughly  awake. 

A  knock  on  the  door  and  his  quick: 


Ushered  in  his  host,  again  wearing  his  gaudy  waistcoat 
and  prodigious  coat. 

Hawthorne  hastened  to  resume  his  coat  and  waistcoat 
and  begged  Mayorga,  who  had  ceremoniously  remained 
standing^  to  be  "seated.  Sitting  down  himself,  he  waited 
for  his  host  to  speak. 

"Shall  we  have  mate?"  the  Spaniard  queried. 

"I  drank  so  much  water  when  I  woke  up  a  few  moments 
ago,"  Hawthorne  said,  "that  I  am  anything  but  thirsty. 

"A  cigar,  perhaps?"  Mayorga  suggested. 

"A  cigar  by  all  means,"  Hawthorne  acquiesced. 

When  the  cigars  were  lit,  after  a  puff  or  two,  Don  Vi 
cente  began: 

"You  will,  I  trust,  pardon  my  intrusion.  But  i 
sary  that  we  talk.  Since  my  siesta  I  have  read  the  letters 
you  brought.  Believe  me,  my  son,  I  take  a  very  deep  inter 
est  in  one  so  well  loved  by  my  dear  friends.  I  beg  leave  to 
speak  to  you  as  if  you  were  indeed  my  son,  say  returned 
to  Asuncion  after  a  six  years'  absence." 

"You  have  every  leave,"  the  young  man  Assured  him, 
"to  say  anything  and  everything  you  please." 

"'My  son,"  Mayorga  began,  "you  proclaimed  this  morn 
ing  a  very  amazing  purpose  in  coming  to  Asuncion." 

"I  was  perfectly  sincere,"  Hawthorne  declared. 
"Your  sincerity  was  obvious,"  Don  Vicente  responded. 
"Astonishingly  obvious.     Still  more  astonishing  was  your 
temerity  in  uttering  such  sentiments  to  a  stranger. 

"Senor  Don  Vicente,"  Hawthorne  spoke  earnestly,      I 


40  EL   SUPREMO 

maintain  that  there  was  in  what  I  did  no  trace  of  rashness. 
I  considered  myself  perfectly  safe  in  making  any  statement 
to  you.  A  Spaniard  of  the  pure  blood  never  betrays  a 
guest/ ' 

"You  were  justified  in  your  faith,  my  son,"  Mayorga 
assented.  ' '  But  the  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that  you  must 
not  again,  while  in  Asuncion,  feel  yourself  justified  in  any 
such  faith  in  any  human  being  until  you  have  come  to 
know  well  to  whom  you  are  talking  and  to  be  certain  that 
they  can  be  depended  upon." 

"I  shall  observe  your  suggestions,"  Hawthorne  agreed 
somewhat  stiffly. 

"In  the  second  place,"  Mayorga  resumed,  "your  as 
tounding  announcement  places  me  in  a  cruel  dilemma.  I 
will  be  very  frank  and  open  with  you  as  you  with  me. 
Prom  the  bearer  of  such  letters,  from  a  man  with  such  a 
face  as  yours,  I  shall  have  no  secrets.  To  you  I  shall  disem 
bosom  myself  completely. 

"  As  a  Castilian,  I  cannot  but  love  my  king,  and  long  for 
a  complete  and  permanent  restoration  throughout  all  his 
dominions  of  his  power  and  the  peaceful  domination  of  our 
Holy  Church.  As  a  man  of  sense,  I  cannot  but  feel  that 
there  is  good  hope  and  strong  probability  of  such  a  happy 
outcome.  Don  Jose  Fernando  Abascal  de  Oviedo,  our  great 
viceroy  and  general,  still  reigns  supreme  and  triumphant 
at  Lima.  He  has  reduced  to  subjection  and  loyalty,  if  we 
may  believe  what  we  hear,  all  of  our  king 's  possessions,  ex 
cept  the  parts  of  Granada  lying  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Orinoco,  the  plains  of  Cuyo  and  Tucuman,  Buenos  Aires 
and  its  neighbourhood,  The  Banda  Oriental,  and  our 
Paraguay." 

"I  can  bear  you  out  there,"  Hawthorne  put  in.  "Such 
were  the  accepted  reports  when  I  left  Buenos  Aires." 

"Abascal,"  Mayorga  continued,  "has  been  so  magnifi 
cently  successful  that,  as  a  subject,  as  once  having  been, 
and  perhaps  yet  again,  fated  to  be  a  subject  of  my  rightful 
king,  I  cannot  but  hope  that  he  may  yet  crush  the  rebellion 
in  Buenos  Aires. ' ' 

"General  San  Martin,"  Hawthorne  cut  in,  "not  only 
expects  to  maintain  the  independence  of  Buenos  Aires,  but 
hopes  to  conquer  Peru." 

Mayorga  smiled,  and  said : 


WARNINGS  41 

"I  understand  your  enthusiasm  for  a  brilliant  com 
mander  under  whom  you  have  fought,  but  you  will  allow 
that  such  wild  hopes  are  nothing  but  empty  dreams." 

"If  you  had  inspected  General  San  Martin's  regiments 
at  Buenos  Aires,  as  I  have, ' '  Hawthorne  declared,  ' '  if  you 
had  seen  them  drill,  and  knew  their  quality  and  character, 
you  would  regard  his  aspirations  as  entirely  sane  and 
practical. ' ' 

"That  may  be,"  Don  Vicente  hastened  to  soothe  him. 
"But  you  must  concede  that  discord  exists  everywhere 
about  Buenos  Aires,  between  the  various  provinces,  evei> 
where  civil  war  is  not  actually  in  progress;  that  the  least 
disturbed  are  completely  at  odds  with  the  city  authorities ; 
that  there  is  much  hostility  of  feeling  and  no  coherence  of 
purpose. ' ' 

"All  that  is  true,"  Hawthorne  admitted. 

"A  poor  basis  for  the  hopes  you  seem  to  share,"  Mayorga 
remarked. 

"If  you  knew  him,"  Hawthorne  maintained  hotly,  "if 
you  knew  his  genius,  his  magnetism,  his  force,  you  would 
not  regard  any  plan  of  his  as  chimerical." 

"That  may  all  be  as  you  conceive,"  his  host  gently  spoke, 
i '  but  Abascal  is  now  in  undisturbed  possession  of  the  entire 
watershed  of  the  Pacific,  from  Panama  to  Chiloe.  A  few 
rebel  ships  cruise  off  the  coast,  but  they  can  effect  noth 
ing." 

"They  do  not  cruise  off  the  coast  any  longer,"  Haw 
thorne  interrupted  him.  "Admiral  Brown  has  been  com 
pelled  to  round  the  Horn  again  and  to  return  to  Buenos 
Aires." 

"There!"  Don  Vicente  exclaimed.  "Over  against  an 
impoverished  and  distracted  revolted  region  we  have  a 
compact  and  united  territory  of  vast  extent,  resources  and 
population,  completely  in  Abascal's  hands,  and  he  has 
generals  of  genius  and  force  also,  whose  men  are  devoted 
to  them.  Pezuela  and  La  Serna  are  generals  by  no  means 
contemptible,  masters  of  all  branches  of  the  art  of  war, 
and  gifted  with  great  powers.  They  are  more  than  likely 
to  overwhelm  all  this  part  of  the  world." 

"That  is  entirely  conceivable,"  Hawthorne  acknowl 
edged. 

"Therefore,"  Don  Vicente  concluded,  "I  may  yet  live 


42  EL   SUPREMO 

to  see  Spanish  troops  reestablish  Spanish  rule  at  Asuncion. 
I  cannot  but  feel  it  my  duty  to  do  nothing  to  strengthen 
the  existing  government  of  Paraguay  and  range  myself 
instinctively  with  any  movement  likely  to  overthrow  the 
present  regime.  Whatever  your  motives,  you  draw  me  to 
support  you.  Ascendency  of  us  Spaniards  would  be  a  bet 
ter  thing  for  Paraguay,  whatever  the  ultimate  condition 
of  our  country.  Heart  and  soul  I  am  with  you. 

"Yet,  as  a  man  of  property,  as  the  father  of  a  family, 
I  hesitate.  The  man  is  so  incredibly  astute.  He  has  such 
a  hold  upon  the  people.  His  spies  are  everywhere.  Success 
against  him  seems  impossible.  And  to  be  suspected,  even, 
means  ruin  for  my  family  and  death  for  myself. 

"I  have  reflected  upon  all  these  aspects  of  the  matter, 
and  I  have  come  to  this  conclusion.  I  shall  do  nothing 
either  to  aid  or  oppose  you  in  any  way.  And  I  shall  ask 
you  to  remain  my  guest.  Thus  I  shall  place  myself  in  the 
best  possible  position,  whatever  happens. ' ' 

Hawthorne  smiled. 

11  Since  you  are  frank  with  me,"  he  said,  "may  I  be 
frank  with  you?" 

' '  Assuredly,  my  son. ' '    Don  Vicente  beamed  at  him. 

"So  far  from  placing  yourself  in  the  best  possible  posi 
tion,"  the  young  man  began,  "the  lukewarm  course  you 
propose  will  make  you  equally  despised  by  any  party  that 
succeeds.  A.  reestablished  Royalist  government  will  say 
you  did  not  help  it.  So  will  a  successful  independent  re 
public.  Supposing  me  betrayed  to  the  Dictator,  he  will 
certainly  be  as  severe  -on  the  man  in  whose  house  I  lived 
as  on  any  of  my  proved  associates.  You  have  nothing  to 
gain,  if  you  keep  me  in  your  house,  by  not  throwing  your 
self  heart  and  soul  into  my  schemes.  Take  the  bold  course. 
Make  up  your  mind  one  way  or  the  other,  and  bend  all 
your  energies  that  way.  If  you  keep  me  in  your  house,  as 
you  propose,  you  have  nothing  to  lose  by  hearty  coopera 
tion  with  me,  since  my  presence  here  exposes  you  to  as 
much  danger  as  would  your  most  active  participation  with 
me." 

"Not  so!"  Don  Vicente  vigorously  argued.  "You  do 
not  know  our  Dictator.  If  you  should  be  betrayed,  he 
would  consider  your  presence  in  my  house  proof  of  my 
ignorance  of  your  activities;  your  having  left  my  house, 


WARNINGS  43 

proof  of  my  collusion  with  you.  I  know  him.  From  all 
points  of  view — as  a  friend  of  your  sponsors  to  me,  as  a 
Castilian,  as  a  Paraguayan,  as  a  cautious  husband  and 
father — I  beg  of  you  to  remain  my  guest. ' ' 

"It  is  not  possible,'7  Hawthorne  sighed,  "to  refuse  such 
an  appeal  when  all  my  inclinations  point  the  same  way. 
I  had  intended,  however,  to  rent  a  small  house  for  myself, 
and  thus  endanger  no  one." 

"You  are  mistaken,"  Don  Vicente  maintained.  "Any 
•ne  you  rented  from  would  be  involved  in  your  ruin  were 
you  betrayed,  and  after  one  day  in  my  house  any  disaster 
to  you  will  fall  on  me  as  well.  I  give  you  Godspeed  in 
your  lofty  purpose,  but  by  all  means,  since  you  are  my 
guest,  remain  so.  Believe  me,  it  will  be  for  the  best." 

' '  I  yield, ' '  Hawthorne  ruminated,  ' '  and  here  is  my  hand 
on  my  promise." 

Solemnly  they  clasped  hands. 

"We  shall  consider,  then,"  Don  Vicente  said,  "tw* 
points  as  settled :  you  are  to  dwell  here  during  your  sojourn 
in  Asuncion,  and  you  are  to  feel  free  to  prosecute  your  pur 
poses  without  any  hesitation. 

"And  now,  having  taken  my  advice  upon  matters  of 
great  moment,  you  may  very  properly  accept  my  sugges 
tions  upon  trifles.  You  came  to  Asuncion  dressed  accord 
ing  to  the  style  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  wearing  trousers, 
and  without  a  sword.  But  for  such  a  man  as  your  letters 
of  introduction  demonstrate  you  to  be  this  will  never  do 
in  our  Paraguay.  We  are  antique,  old-fashioned,  what  you 
will,  but  we  are  what  we  are.  Wlffcn  in  Rome  do  as  the 
Eomans  do.  No  gentleman  in  Paraguay  wears  trousers; 
except  on  a  bathing  party,  all  wear  knee-breeches.  No 
gentleman  goes  abroad  without  a  sword.  Swordless,  and 
wearing  trousers,  a  man  is  marked  as  a  slave,  or  at  least 
as  a  free  labourer.  The  populace,  the  gentry,  even,  will  not 
accept  you  for  what  you  are,  cannot  be  brought  to  accept 
you  for  what  you  are,  unless  garbed  as  custom  here  de 
mands. 

"I  have  procured  for  you  a  hanger,  such  as  our  traders 
and  merchants  wear,  and  a  belt  to  support  it.  Also  I  have 
a  tailor  h^re  with  his  cloth,  yard-sticks,  shears,  and  cutting 
board.  He  will  measure  you,  if  you  will  agree,  and  by 
the  time  we  have  finished  our  talk  he  will  have  ready  for 


44  EL   SUPREMO 

you  a  pair  of  knee-breeches,  in  which  you  can  appear  any 
where  in  Asuncion  at  no  disadvantage." 

Hawthorne,  amused  and  acquiescent,  agreed.  But  his 
thrifty  New  England  soul  shuddered  at  the  tailor's  prices, 
and  he  arranged  to  have  some  pairs  of  his  trousers  refash 
ioned  into  knee-breeches,  which  the  tailor  offered  to  do  at 
a  ridiculously  low  figure.  Evidently  labour  was  as  cheap  in 
Asuncion  as  cloth  was  exorbitant. 

As  soon  as  the  details  were  settled  the  tailor  retired 
to  the  courtyard,  where  he  squatted  cross-legged  between 
two  of,  the  pillars  on  the  shady  side. 

Don  Vicente  reclosed  the  door,  reseated  himself,  and 
lighted  another  cigar. 

"How,"  he  began,  "do  you  propose  to  account  to  our 
government  for  your  presence  in  Paraguay?  ,  All  foreign 
ers  are  suspected ;  all  are  closely  questioned. ' ' 

"I  think  that  will  be  easy,"  Hawthorne  replied.  "I  do 
not  purpose  to  embark  upon  any  revolutionary  propa 
ganda  rashly  or  precipitately.  I  shall  familiarize  myself 
"With  conditions  at  Asuncion,  and  shall  not  initiate  measures 
against  the  existing  state  of  affairs  unless  I  make  up  my 
mind  that  a  change  would  really  be  for  the  good  of  the 
country." 

The  Spaniard,  too  polite  to  betray  astonishment  by  word, 
exclamation,  or  movement,  kept  his  face  muscles  also  under 
excellent  control.  Yet  his  expression  showed  his  amaze 
ment  at  the  serene  self-confidence,  the  calm  self-reliance  of 
this  astounding  lad,  who  was  obviously  sincere,  and  mani 
festly  thought  any  government  he  disapproved  of  doomed 
to  destruction,  and  any  plans  of  his  certain  to  succeed. 

Hawthorne,  oblivious  to  his  host's  countenance,  went  on: 

"Meanwhile,  I  shall  give  out  that  I  have  come  here  with 
the  idea  of  benefiting  Paraguay  and  profiting  myself  by 
extending  the  export  of  yerba  mate  to  Europe  and  North 
America.  Such,  in  fact,  is  my  purpose,  whether  I  meddle 
in  politics  here  or  not.  I  believe  that  yerba  can  be  made 
an  article  of  import  into  every  European  country.  Not  a 
pound  of  it  now  goes  beyond  this  continent.  An  extension 
of  the  demand  to  richer  and  more  populous  communities 
would  make  me  a  wealthy  man  and  greatly  increase  the 
income  of  this  government  and  the  prosperity  of  Paraguay. 
It  seems  to  me  that  such  a  scheme,  properly  presented, 


WARNINGS  45 

would  appear  a  sufficient  reason  for  my  presence  here ;  that 
the  necessary  investigations  as  to  the  methods  of  the  pro 
duction,  preparation,  and  export  of  the  yerba,  and  the 
introduction  of  such  improvements  in  those  methods  as 
European  markets  might  demand,  would  cover  effectually 
any  amount  of  conspiracy  and  preliminaries  of  an  insur 
rection.  You  see,  my  assigned  object  in  coming  here  will 
be  also  my  real  object,  one  of  my  real  objects,  and  a  matter 
in  which  I  am  deeply  interested. ' ' 

"Your  idea  promises  well/'  his  host  admitted,  "but  you 
will  need  superhuman  subtlety  to  cope  with  the  diabolical 
cunning  of  that  demon." 

"Dr.  Parlett,"  Hawthorne  remarked,  "said  that  you 
could  tell  me  all  that  would  be  necessary  for  me  in  dealing 
with  him." 

"The  mere  externals  are  easy  enough  to  communicate," 
Mayorga  reflected.  "He  begins  to  give  audiences  at  nine. 
For  any  one  to  arrive  earlier  and  loiter  about  the  palace,  or 
walk  up  and  down  near  it  until  the  hour,  irritates  him, 
and  even  infuriates  him.  Yet,  to  be  the  first  to  whom  he 
gives  audience  is  an  advantage.  So  you  had  best  time 
yourself  on  the  first  stroke  of  nine  from  the  Cathedral 
tower.  You  must  be  prepared  for  anything.  You  may  be 
let  in  without  question  or  ceremony;  you  may  be  kept 
waiting;  you  may  be  subjected  to  one  of  his  attempts  at 
semi-royal  ceremonial ;  you  may  be  arrested. ' ' 

"Arrested!"  Hawthorne  cried.     "Would  he  dare?" 

"Dare!"  his  host  exclaimed.  "Who  or  what  is  to  hin 
der  him  ?  You  have  come  up  the  river.  What  war-squad 
ron  could  reach  Asuncion?  And  who  has  a  squadron 
to  send?  Not  Buenos  Aires,  nor  would  they  dream  of  it; 
still  less  of  a  land  expedition  after  Belgrano's  disaster. 
Abascal  is  on  the  other  side  of  endless  deserts;  he  could 
strike  at  us  only  after  reducing  Buenos  Aires.  And  sup 
pose  all  the  rest  of  South  America  united  against  Para 
guay,  how  long  would  even  an  irresistible  force  take  to 
come  at  him,  let  alone  reduce  him  ?  Suppose  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth  actuated  by  one  motive  only,  and  that  hos 
tility  to  him,  a  year  at  least  must  elapse  before  his  power 
here  would  be  so  much  as  threatened.  And  the  nations 
of  the  world  scarcely  know  that  Paraguay  exists.  We 
might  as  well  be  on  another  planet.  As  far  as  he  is  con- 


46  EL   SUPREMO 

cerned  he  rules  the  world,  ruling  this  little  world  which  is 
his;  for,  except  our  tiny  minority  of  old  Spaniards,  all 
Paraguayans  do  his  behests  without  hesitation  or  after 
thought.  Dare?  It  would  never  cross  his  mind  that  any 
risk  could  be  involved!" 

"But,"  Hawthorne  insisted,  "in  respect  to  himself 
alone,  would  he  stoop  to  arrest  a  harmless  stranger?" 

"Actually,"  his  host  recapitulated  blandly.  "You  are 
surcharged  with  danger  for  him,  and  he  may  read  you  at 
a  glance.  But  even  if  you  appear  harmless  to  him,  he 
may  act  on  baseless  suspicion  or  mere  whim,  and  never 
feel  it  as  stooping. 

"A  notable  characteristic  of  this  remarkable  man,  I 
might  almost  say  his  chief  characteristic,  is  his  unsurpass 
able  self-righteousness.  He  is  transparently  sincere  and 
rigidly  conscientious.  I  do  not  believe,  I  say  it  solemnly, 
that  he  ever,  in  all  his  life,  spoke  any  word  or  did  any 
action  which  he  did  not  think  right.  But,  by  long-con 
tinued  success  and  adulation  he  has  come,  he  long  ago 
came,  to  the  point  where  anything  he  says  or  anything 
he  does  appears  right  to  him.  If  the  whim  seize  him  he 
might  have  you  arrested. 

*  *  But  we  wander  from  the  point.  I  was  telling  you  how 
to  deal  with  him.  Be  prepared  for  anything.  You  may  be 
shackled  and  thrown  into  an  underground  dungeon;  ap 
proaching  him  you  take  your  life  in  your  hand." 

"I  took  my  life  in  my  hand,"  Hawthorne  breathed, 
"when  I  came  to  Paraguay;  the  details  of  the  ordeal  are 
not  likely  to  daunt  me." 

"Oh,"  his  host  exclaimed,  "I  anticipate  no  difficulties 
for  you.  But  the  point  is  that  anything  may  happen. 
You  must  adapt  yourself  to  the  exigencies  of  the  moment 
and  must  think  and  act  quick.  Everything  depends  on 
the  first  impression  you  make.  If  he  takes  a  fancy  to 
you  he  will  go  out  of  his  way  to  do  you  favours,  will 
extend  you  all  sorts  of  privileges,  will  overwhelm  you  with 
kindness.  If  he  is  prejudiced  against  you  by  any  trifle,  a 
word,  an  intonation,  a  gesture,  nothing  you  can  do  will 
ever  alter  his  valuation  of  you.  He  is  incapable  of  enter 
taining  the  idea  that  he  could  form  an  incorrect  judgment. 
Whatever  he  bans,  is,  he  is  sure,  wrong  always,  everywhere 
and  for  all  mm;  whatever  he  blesses  is  impeccable.  So 


WARNINGS  47 

be  careful.  Address  him  as  Most  Excellent  Sir,  or  as 
Excellency.  If  you  say  'you'  once  you  are  a  lost  man." 

" Would  he  really  order  me  shot?"  Hawthorne  sug 
gested  quizzically. 

"No,"  Mayorga  balanced  seriously,  "I  think  there  is 
little  danger  of  that.  I  believe  he  is  in  deadly  earnest 
about  that  decree  in  respect  to  residents  of  Asuncion,  and 
he  would  shoot  you  or  any  newcomer  who  said  'usia'  to 
him,  if  he  thought  it  said  intentionally.  But  he  would 
probably  not  consider  it  an  intentional  insult  unless  a 
north-west  wind  were  blowing.  If  he  regarded  it  as  a 
mere  slip  he  might  ignore  it,  especially  if  the  wind  were 
south-west.  But  most  likely  such  a  slip  would  cause  him  to 
dismiss  you  curtly  and  that  would  mean  from  him  per 
manent  and  unalterable  disfavour." 

"You  make  him  out  a  very  petulant  and  splenetie 
being,"  Hawthorne  considered.  "There  is  something  con 
temptible  about  such  a  nature." 

"There  is  nothing  contemptible  about  him,"  Mayorga 
maintained.  "But,  next  to  his  self-righteousness,  his  im 
placability  is  his  most  salient  characteristic.  He  is  abso 
lutely  implacable.  There  was  some  difference  between 
him  and  his  father;  what,  no  one  ever  knew.  It  might 
have  been  a  quarrel,  a  disagreement,  a  mere  general 
estrangement.  An  estrangement  it  certainly  was.  For 
many  years  it  was  a  matter  of  common  knowledge.  Gas- 
par  never  went  near  Yaguaron,  much  less  visited  his 
father.  They  were  completely  strangers. 

""When  the  old  man  was  taken  ill,  he  sent  for  his  son; 
Gaspar  refused  to  go.  "When  plainly  failing  under  his  last 
illness  he  sent  again.  Again  his  messenger  met  with  a 
curt  refusal.  When  manifestly  dying  he  sent  again  and 
again,  without  any  success. 

"When  his  father  had  but  a  few  hours  to  live  the 
curate  of  Yaguaron  himself  rode  to  Asuncion.  He  told 
how  the  padre  was  even  then  ministering  to  the  dying  man, 
how  his  father  declared  he  could  not  die  in  peace  unless 
reconciled  to  his  son;  how  he  begged  and  called  for  his 
boy.  Gaspar  obstinately  refused  to  budge.  Then  the 
old  padre  himself,  leaving  his  curate  with  the  sinking  over 
seer,  galloped  to  Asuncion  like  a  young  soldier,  spoke 
eloquently  to  Gaspar,  painted  the  old  man 's  agony  of  mind 


48  EL   SUPREMO 

in  moving  periods,  told  how  he  felt  that  he  could  never 
enter  heaven  unless  his  son  made  peace  with  him. 

"Said  Gaspar: 

"  'If  my  father  cannot  go  to  heaven  without  my  for 
giveness,  let  him  burn  in  hell  forever.  I  shall  never  for 
give  him,  nor  look  at  him.' 

"And  the  old  man  died  in  terror,  babbling  and  gasp 
ing." 

:<You  make  out  this  tyrant  a  monster,"  Hawthorne 
cried. 

* '  You  miss  the  point, ' '  Don  Vicente  argued.  ' '  The  point 
is  that  he  not  only  felt  all  the  wrong  was  on  his  father's 
side,  but  derided  the  idea  that  his  forgiveness  could  make 
any  difference  in  the  old  man's  guilt.  He  was  perfectly 
certain  he  was  right  and,  I  doubt  not,  has  never  had  a 
qualm  of  remorse  since." 

' '  You  rouse  me  against  him  tenfold  worse  than  before, ' ' 
Hawthorne  said. 

"The  point  is,  not  to  give  way  to  your  feelings,"  his 
host  admonished  him,  "but  to  conduct  yourself  so  as  to 
win  his  favour,  or  at  least  so  as  not  to  incur  his  dis 
favour." 

"Well!"  Hawthorne  ejaculated  resignedly. 

"For  one  thing,"  Don  Vicente  warned  him,  "he  pooh- 
poohs  any  refinements  in  food  and  drink.  Plain  eating 
he  extols.  Any  expression  of  love  of  dainties  irritates  him. 
Particularly  is  this  true  of  mate,  snuff  and  cigars.  He  says 
all  tobacco  is  tobacco  and  there  is  no  difference.  So  of 
yerba.  If  he  should  chance  to  invite  you  to  take  mate 
with  him  be  prepared  to  find  it  the  meanest  and  cheapest 
yerba  de  polos.  The  preference  you  have  expressed  here 
for  ca-a  cuys  would  rouse  his  contemptuous  wrath.  He  says 
those  who  dislike  caa  miri  are  ridiculous  and  affected,  and 
that  no  human  being  can  tell  the  three  kinds  apart  by 
taste. 

"I  think  at  the  moment  of  no  other  special  point  on 
avoiding  his  displeasure.  No  one  could  lay  down  any  gen 
eral  precepts,  for  he  seems  moved  by  mere  caprice.  As  to 
gaining  his  approval  some  hints  may  help  you. 

"He  is  a  mass  of  vanity.  For  praise  he  is  endlessly 
greedy,  yet  he  is  quick  to  detect  intentional  or  laboured 
flattery,  and  resents  a  clumsy  attempt  at  laudation.  A 


WARNINGS  49 

compliment  to  please  him  must  be  based  on  a  solid  founda 
tion  of  fact  and  subtly  presented. 

"He  is  deeply  interested  in  the  natural  sciences,  in  all 
sorts  of  insects,  water-animals,  fishes,  reptiles,  birds  and 
beasts;  has  skeletons  standing  about  on  shelves;  studies 
plants,  flowers  and  seeds.  If  you  are  an  adept  at  any  of 
these  pursuits  it  would  gain  his  attention." 

"I  am  no  adept  at  zoology  or  botany,"  Hawthorne  con 
fessed,  "but  I  have  dabbled  in  both." 

"Ability  to  talk  on  such  subjects  is  a  sure  passport  to 
his  favour, ' '  the  Spaniard  told  him.  ' '  Still  more  is  he  in 
terested  in  books  on  history  and  mathematics.  The  calcula 
tion  of  the  force  of  waterfalls  for  use  on  mill-wheels  occu 
pies  him,  for  instance." 

"I  could  meet  him  on  my  own  ground  there,"  Haw 
thorne  ruminated. 

"Better  and  better,"  Mayorga  exclaimed,  rubbing  his 
fat,  white  hands.  "Moreover,  he  is  fond  of  mechanisms 
for  making  sparks;  I  forget  the  right  word." 

"Electrical  machines,"  Hawthorne  prompted  him. 

"Correct,"  Don  Vicente  beamed.  "If  you  can  talk  to 
him  as  well  as  that  he  will  love  you.  He  regards  the  small 
est  suggestion  on  politics  as  an  insult,  but  submits  to  any 
amount  of  schooling  on  the  sciences.  If  you  can  show  him 
you  know  more  than  he,  he  will  like  you." 

"I  know  little,"  Hawthorne  disclaimed,  "but  perhaps 
enough  to  arouse  his  interest." 

"He  respects  any  one,"  Mayorga  added,  "who  can  hold 
his  own  against  him  at  chess  and  admires  whoever  dares 
and  is  able  to  win  a  game  from  him.  Few  can  and  fewer 
dare." 

"I  shall  try,"  said  Hawthorne  simply. 

"Above  all,"  Don  Vicente  perorated,  "he  is  absorbed 
in  the  study  of  the  heavens,  particularly  in  the  prediction 
of  eclipses." 

"I  can  calculate  an  eclipse,"  Hawthorne  declared. 

"An  eclipse  of  the  sun?"  the  Spaniard  queried. 

"Certainly,  of  the  sun,"  Hawthorne  repeated. 

"If  you  can  bring  that  to  his  attention,  as  if  acciden 
tally"  Don  Vicente  asserted,  "and  if  you  can  verify  his 
computations,  he  will  love  you.  If  you  can  detect  an  error 
in  his  reckonings  and  demonstrate  to  him  your  superiority 


50  EL   SUPREMO 

in  that  or  in  any  science,  he  will  favour  you  in  all  things." 

"You  make  me  hopeful!"  Hawthorne  cried. 

"That  is  well,"  Don  Vicente  beamed.  "Hopefulness 
is  rare  in  Paraguay  in  our  times." 

"And  now,"  he  went  on  in  an  altered  tone,  "you  will 
want  to  unpack  your  possessions  and  to  settle  yourself  for 
your  stay  with  us.  I  shall  leave  you  to  your  own  devices. 
Shall  I  send  Bopi  to  assist  you?" 

"I  think  not,  if  you  will  permit  me  to  decline,"  Haw 
thorne  replied.  l  i  In  fact  I  was  not  thinking  of  my  trunks, 
but  of  going  to  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop;  the  British  phy 
sician  I  encountered  on  the  street  told  me  I  should  find 
him  there.  I  am  curious  to  see  more  of  him.  If  the  tailor 
has  my  breeches  ready  and  if  you  will  tell  me  the  way,  I 
think  I  shall  look  up  the  eccentric  doctor.  He  interests 
me." 

"What  energy!"  Mayorga  exclaimed.  "What  energy 
you  Americanos  possess!  After  four  months  on  the  river 
most  men  would  think  only  of  rest.  However,  if  you  wish 
to  go  there,  it  will  be  an  excellent  place  of  resort  for  you. 
In  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop  you  can  discuss  our  supreme 
Dictator  as  you  please,  speak  your  mind  about  him,  and 
call  him  what  you  like.  Bargas  loathes  him,  all  frequent 
ers  of  Bargas'  shop  detest  him.  And  they  are  loyal  to 
each  other  and  will  never  betray  you.  It  is  the  one  place 
in  Asuncion  where  free  speech  is  entirely  safe." 

"How  do  I  reach  it?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

"Shall  I  send  Bopi  to  show  you  the  way?"  his  host 
countered. 

"I  should  prefer  not,"  Hawthorne  demurred.  "I  like 
the  fascination  of  finding  my  way  about  a  strange  city  and 
noting  the  novel  impression." 

"We)l,"  Don  Vicente  agreed,  "just  turn  to  your  right 
as  you  leave  this  house,  cross  the  street  to  the  tail  cactus 
hedge,  follow  it  around  to  your  left  into  Calle  Comercio, 
go  down  the  entire  length  of  that  street  (it  is  not  four 
hundred  yards),  cross  the  little  stone  bridge  over  the 
Riachuelo  on  your  left,  turn  to  your  right  round  the  corner 
of  the  row  of  houses  there,  away  from  the  little  marsh  on 
your  left,  and  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop,  which  is  coloured 
purple  and  light  green  in  broad  stripes,  will  be  directly 
ahead  of  you  on  your  left.  It  stands  all  by  itself,  with 


WINE-SHOP    OF    DOCTOR    BARGAS   51' 

nothing  across  the  street  from  it  except  a  low  wall.  You 
cannot  miss  it.  There  is  a  tall  cactus  hedge  round  the 
property.  The  shop  stands  directly  on  the  street,  facing 
north-east. " 

*  *  I  believe  I  can  remember  all  that, ' '  Hawthorne  smiled. 
* '  Let  us  see  how  the  tailor  is  getting  on. ' ' 


CHAPTEK  V 

THE  WINE-SHOP  OF  DOCTOR  BARGAS 

WHEN  Hawthorne,  all  in  sober  brown,  the  buckled 
knee-breeches  irking  his  ham-strings  a  trifle,  the 
scabbard  of  his  hanger  whacking  his  brown-silk  calves, 
started  out  into  the  still,  tepid,  late  afternoon,  he  strolled 
leisurely,  observing  as  he  went.  The  houses  between  which 
he  passed  were  low,  the  two  largest  with  azoteas,  the  airy 
flat  roofs,  so  agreeable  on  hot  nights,  where  their  owners 
slept  in  sultry  weather  and  of  which  they  were  justly 
proud.  The  others  had  sloping  roofs  of  ill-shaped  red  tiles, 
laid  curve-up  in  uneven  lines  with  white  cement  showing, 
lumpily,  between.  On  the  ridge-poles  the  gorged  and 
drowsy  vultures  roosted  in  groups,  or  by  twos  and  threes, 
or  singly,  hunched,  repulsive  shapes. 

In  the  white-washed  walls  of  the  one-story  structures 
every  door  was  open  and  through  each  Hawthorne  could 
see,  as  he  passed,  into  the  open  quadrangle  round  which 
the  house  was  built.  In  this  open  patio,  or  in  the  square, 
brick-floored  passage  leading  from  the  street  to  this  court 
yard,  sat  the  inmates.  The  gentlemen  were  coatless  and 
freed  of  their  waistcoats,  like  the  Mayorga  family  at  din 
ner.  The  necks  of  their  frilled  shirts  were  mostly  open, 
but  the  lace-edged  sleeves  not  now  rolled  up.  Their  knee- 
breeches  hung  loose,  their  silk  stockings  wrinkled  on  their 
plump  calves ;  their  feet  were  mostly  in  grass-cloth  slippers. 
The  ladies  wore  simple  white  cotton  tupois,  lace  edged, 
very  low  at  the  neck,  scarcely  belted  at  the  waist,  and,  in 
every  case,  manifestly  the  wearer's  only  garment.  All, 
ladies  and  gentlemen  alike,  children  too,  lounged  or  lolled. 
Some  were  sipping  mate  from  the  gourds  they  held  in 
the  left  hand  through  the  tubes  they  held  with  the  right; 


52  EL   SUPREMO 

some  were  eating  melons.  (Hawthorne  wondered  at  the 
capacity  for  food  of  people  who  had  presumably  slept 
barely  two  hours  after  such  a  meal  as  he  had  partaken  of 
at  Don  Vicente's  overloaded  table.)  Every  human  being 
past  childish  years,  unless  eating  or  drinking,  was  smok 
ing,  smoking  really  huge  cigars,  the  ladies'  huger  than  the 
men's. 

The  long  flank  of  the  Cathedral  on  his  right,  ahead,  he 
turned  into  Calle  Comercio,  a  paved  street  along  the 
south-west  side  of  the  market  square.  It  was  all  one  row 
of  close-set  shops  or  dwellings,  squalid  and  crowded  against 
each  other.  The  porticoes  in  front  of  them,  open-raftered, 
their  whitewash  scaled,  peeled  and  discoloured,  formed  a 
sort  of  continuous  covered  sidewalk,  on  which  the  shops 
faced  directly.  Each  was  mostly  a  largish  room,  open 
alike  to  the  street  in  front  and  the  patio  behind,  with  a 
smaller  room  on  each  side  of  it,  sometimes  with  only  one 
on  one  side,  sometimes  itself  forming  all  the  front  of  the 
structure,  the  other  rooms  of  which  were  beyond  its  tiny 
courtyard. 

Beyond  that  border  of  the  Plaza,  where  there  were 
houses  on  both  sides  of  the  street,  some  showed  an  open 
passage,  leading  to  the  patio;  most  had  the  main  room  of 
the  house,  like  the  shops,  standing  open  to  patio  and  street 
alike. 

As  in  the  larger  houses,  nearer  the  better  quarter  of  the 
town,  no  door  was  closed,  every  inhabitant  was  in  plain, 
view.  The  women  were  even  more  lightly  clad  than  their 
betters,  mostly  in  a  low-necked  tupoi  loosely  drawn  at  the 
waist,  but  even  on  the  poorest  lace-edged  over  ankles  al 
ways  graceful,  whether  stockinged  or  bare.  The  men,  be 
sides  their  open  shirts,  wore  wide,  loosely  flapping  white 
trousers  and  grass  slippers,  mostly  on  bare  feet.  All  were 
smoking  or  taking  mate  or  eating  melons,  melons  whose 
rinds  they  did  not  place  on  trays  held  by  servants,  as  did 
the  Mayorgas'  neighbours,  but  threw  flippantly  into  the 
highway,  in  which  those  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  street 
nearly  sat,  out  in  their  porches,  and  in  which  those  out  on 
the  shady  side  of  the  street  actually  were  taking  their  ease. 
They  were  all  unpleasant  to  Hawthorne,  who  picked  his 
way  disdainfully  among  the  melon  rinds,  fresh,  wilted  or 
rotting,  with  which  the  street  was  strewn.  The  natives. 


WINE-SHOP  OF  DOCTOR  BARGAS  53 

polite  according  to  their  origin,  regarded  him  with  in 
offensive  interest.  But  they  spat  often  and  loudly,  the 
women  louder  and  oftener  than  the  men.  Yet  the  men 
were  all  handsome  as  the  gentlemen  on  the  streets  from 
which  he  had  come,  while  the  women,  however  loosely  and 
lightly  clad,  were  never  slatternly  nor  slovenly,  but  all 
neat,  clean  and  dainty ;  every  one,  even  the  crones,  person 
able,  and  all  the  young  ones  pretty.  Their  throats  were 
slender  and  long,  their  chins  small  and  narrow,  their 
faces  small  featured,  their  foreheads  broad,  their  heads 
roundish,  and,  in  contrast  to  their  almost  pointed  chins, 
very  wide  across  the  brows.  Not  a  negro,  not  a  mulatto, 
not  an  octoroon  did  Hawthorne  spy ;  all  were  of  a  type 
like  nothing  he  had  seen  in  Spanish  America;  plainly 
with  a  trace  of  Spanish  blood,  plainly  with  barely  a  trace ; 
otherwise  with  what  he  correctly  conjectured  to  be  Guarani 
native  characteristics. 

Calle  Comereio  ended  at  a  dusty,  uneven  open  space, 
nearly  a  shapeless  triangle,  its  north  side  a  continuation 
of  the  line  of  the  street,  its  east  side  almost  at  right 
angles  to  that,  its  long  side  bounded  by  a  water  course, 
a  narrow  gully  grown  up  with  bamboos,  luxuriant  weeds 
and  lush,  sedgy  grasses.  The  little  stone  bridge  was  set 
askew  of  the  stream,  as  of  both  flanks  of  the  triangle. 

Across  the  bridge  Hawthorne  squeezed  himself  against  a 
whitewashed  house-wall,  blank  and  windowless  up  to  the 
projecting,  raftered  eaves  of  the  low-pitched  gable-end. 
Along  this,  his  right  hand  against  it  steadying  him,  his 
left  foot  almost  in  the  mud,  he  picked  his  way  past  where 
the  water-course  above  the  bridge  expanded  into  a  bubbly 
little  swamp,  overgrown  with  tall  vegetation  on  the  farther 
side  and  on  his  edged  with  a  flat  of  scummy  ooze. 

At  the  corner  of  the  wall  he  turned  into  a  solidly 
built-up  street  of  mean  houses,  similar  to  that  which  had 
led  him  to  the  bridge.  Along  this  he  avoided  more  melon 
rinds,  under  the  bland,  kindly  scrutiny  of  the  idling  popu 
lation. 

Just  beyond  where  the  continuous  rows  of  dwellings  and 
shops  came  to  an  end  Hawthorne  recognised  the  purple 
and  green  striped  front  of  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop,  pro 
jecting  a  foot  or  two  north-eastward  out  of  the  tall,  close 
bedge  of  thorn-cactus,  which  curved  away  towards  his  left. 


54  EL   SUPREMO 

Above  the  top  of  this  cactus  hedge  he  was  surprised  to  see 
the  coping  of  a  white-washed  stone  yard-wall,  high  and 
substantial,  just  inside  the  hedge  and  continuous  with  it. 
Over  the  wall  projected  the  lower  limbs  and  dark,  shining 
foliage  of  well-grown  young  orange  trees. 

The  shop  was  a  one-story  structure,  with  the  usual  red- 
tile  roof  and  jutting  eaves.  A  two-pillared  portico  stood 
in  front  of  it,  sheltering  the  fiat  slab  door-stone.  As  Haw 
thorne  approached  it  the  low  sun,  shining  down  the  long, 
straight  street,  struck  him  full  in  the  eyes.  He  turned  into 
the  open  doorway,  dazzled  and  half  blinded. 

He  entered  a  big,  ceiiingless,  raftered  room,  perceptibly 
cool  and  so  dim  that  he  barely  descried  several  human 
figures,  seated  when  he  entered,  rise  to  their  feet  as  he 
spoke,  asking: 

"Is  this  the  wine-shop  of  Dr.  Bargas?" 

"It  is  the  wine-shop  of  Dr.  Bargas,"  a  big,  resonant, 
genial  voice  answered  him,  "and  I  am  that  very  Dr. 
Bargas." 

By  the  light  from  the  door  Hawthorne  saw  approach 
him  a  tall,  stout  man,  wearing  a  mighty  amplitude  of 
gaudy  attire.  His  hand  was  held  out  and  he  continued : 

"I  take  it  that  you  are  Don  Guillermo  Atorno,  newly 
arrived  at  Asuncion." 

"That  is  my  name,"  Hawthorne  acknowledged,  "and  I 
am  the  bearer  of  letters  of  introduction  to  Dr.  Bargas  from 
Don  Luis  Aldao  of  Santa  Fe,  from  his  uncle  Don  Francisco 
Candioti,  and  from  Don  Esteban  Maria  Perrichon,  post 
master  general  of  Corrientes." 

' ' All  my  good  friends, ' '  Dr.  Bargas  fairly  shouted ;  "all 
my  very  good  friends;  almost  as  good  friends  as  my  best 
friend  of  all,  the  incomparable  Marquess  de  Torretagle  de 
Lima.  You  are  my  brother,  my  dear  brother,  hencefor 
ward,  Seiior  Don  Guillermo,  bringing  letters  from  such 
dear  friends,  and  requiring  for  that  matter  no  letter  of 
introduction  except  your  own  appearance." 

He  grasped  Hawthorne's  hand  in  his  large,  warm  palm, 
waving  an  expansive  left  hand  towards  every  part  of  the 
room. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "let  me  present  to  you  the  friend 
of  Don  Luis,  of  Don  Francisco,  of  Don  Esteban,  of  myself, 
of  all  of  us,  Senor  Don  Guillermo  Atorno  de  los  Estzdos 


WINE-SHOP    OF   DOCTOR   BARGAS    55 

Unidos  del  America  del  Norte,  of  whom  Don  Tomas  has 
been  telling  us." 

The  good  doctor  paused,  made  a  vast  inhalation  of 
breath,  like  the  wind  blowing  down  a  long  street  at  night, 
and  continued:  "Sefior  Don  Guillermo,  let  me  present 
you  to  General  Don  Fulgencio  Yegros,  the  renowned  vic 
tor  of  Paraguary;  to  Padre  Don  Lisardo  Bogarin,  one  of 
the  chief  ornaments  of  our  native  clergy,  renowned  for  his 
learning  and  piety,  and  to  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda,  the 
most  popular  and  beloved  gentleman  in  all  Paraguay, 
friend  of  every  patrician  family  in  the  country,  always  in 
demand  at  christenings,  and  godfather,  padrino  or  com- 
padre,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  every  human  being  in  our 
genteel  circles. " 

All  bowed  gracefully  in  acknowledgement  of  the  intro 
duction;  but,  as  the  privilege,  rigidly  reserved  in  Spain 
for  the  Grandees,  was  arrogated  to  himself  by  every  gentle 
man  in  the  new  world,  where  heads  were  uncovered  only 
in  church  and  in  company  of  ladies,  all  kept  their  hats  on. 

Every  one,  however,  produced  his  snuff  box  and  the  in 
troduction  was  sealed,  as  it  were,  by  repeated  bowings  and 
pinches  of  snuff. 

Hawthorne  was  bowed  into  a  chair,  Don  Lisardo  sat  on 
a  chest,  Don  Gregorio  on  a  pile  of  boxes,  Don  Fulgencio 
on  a  stack  of  bales,  while  their  host  half  sat,  half  leaned, 
on  the  edge  of  the  big  table,  one  foot  on  the  floor,  one 
swinging. 

During  the  one-sided  discourse  which  ensued  Hawthorne 
had  plenty  of  opportunity  to  observe  his  surroundings  and 
companions. 

The  big  rectangular  interior  of  the  wine-shop  reminded 
him  a  good  deal  of  a  barn,  and  a  good  deal  more  of  a 
warehouse.  Staring  up  at  its  blackened  rafters,  he  could 
see  between  the  roof-planks  the  rough  under-surfaces  of 
the  tiles  and  here  and  there  hanging  gobbets  of  mortar. 
The  walls  were  white-washed.  In  either  gable  end  was  a 
sashless,  jalousied  window,  big,  and  high  up.  On  either 
side  of  the  street  door,  midway  of  that  half  of  the  street 
wall,  was  a  bigger  window,  low-down,  sashless,  jalousied 
inside,  as  he  had  seen  them  barred  outside.  The  light  in 
the  room  came  from  the  three  doors,  most  of  it  from  the 
open  street-r!.oor,  some  from  the  door  into  the  courtyard, 


56  EL   SUPREMO 

even  a  little  from  the  door  into  another  room.  The  floor 
was  brick.  Each  end  wall  was  piled  up  to  the  high  window- 
gill  with  wine-casks,  tier  upon  tier,  laid  flat,  butts  to  wall 
and  heads  outward.  All  along  the  front  wall  were  simi 
larly  piled  sharp-cornered  tercios  of  mate,  ranked  up  to 
the  eaves,  like  well-piled  cord-wood,  from  wall  to  window 
and  window  to  door.  Between  the  two  rear  doors  stood  a 
tall  bufete,  being  chest  of  drawers,  writing  desk,  filing 
cabinet  and  book-case  one  above  the  other,  all  in  one.  It 
was  a  magnificent  piece  of  furniture  in  unsurpassable 
mahogany.  On  each  side  of  it,  against  it  and  the  wall, 
were  towering  piles  of  blunt-cornered  serons  of  tobacco, 
extending  to  the  door- jambs;  and  beyond  the  doors  other 
piles  of  tobficco-serons  lined  the  walls  to  the  eaves,  till 
they  jostled  the  wine-casks. 

The  brick  floor  was  mostly  hidden  under  wine-casks, 
supported  on  skids;  one  set  single,  one  double,  tier  above 
tier,  both  sets  with  battered  silver  tankards  and  goblets 
lying  anyhow  on  the  casks  in  the  spaces  between  them ;  an 
isolated  stack  of  tobacco-sero-ns,  waist  high,  two  more  of 
square-cornered,  trunk-like  petacones  of  hide  with  the  hair 
on  for  holding  cigars ;  three  chests,  several  chairs  like  that 
on  which  he  was,  with  leather  seats  and  excessively  tall, 
straight  backs.  In  the  middle  was  the  big,  battered, 
clumsy-legged  table  of  black  lapacho-wood  on  whose  edge 
the  doctor  sat.  His  costume  was  sufficiently  striking;  a 
cocked  hat,  set  on  the  back  of  his  head,  a  light  yellow  coat 
with  big  white  mother-of-pearl  buttons  and  plenty  of  ex 
panse  of  lapels,  pocket-flaps  and  cuffs ;  a  gold-embroidered 
waistcoat,  open  to  display  a  vast  bulge  of  cravat  and  shirt- 
frill;  green  satin  knee-breeches  with  gold  knee-buckles; 
white  silk  stockings,  gold-buckled  shoes,  a  long  rapier  in 
a  silver  scabbard.  His  hair  was  powdered  and  pomatumed 
and  confined  in  a  bag- wig;  his  face  was  jovial  and  rosy. 

Dr.  Fulgencio  was  a  most  un-Spanish~Iooking  man.  He 
was  considerably  over  six  feet  tall  and  even  disproportion 
ately  large  at  neck,  wrists,  ankles,  feet,  hands,  and  in  every 
dimension,  so  that,  although  he  showed  no  trace  of  fat  or 
plumpness  anywhere,  he  must  have  weighed  nearly  three 
hundred  pounds.  Hawthorne  was  amazed  at  the  impres 
sion  of  muscular  power  this  man  gave,  e^ven  in  relaxed 
repose.  He  was  a  pattern  Samson.  Bull-killing,  lion- 


WINE-SHOP   OF   DOCTOR   BARGAS    57 

strangling  and  other  such  feats  would,  one  felt,  be  trifles 
to  this  Gaucho  Hercules.  His  costume  was  approximately 
the  uniform  of  a  Spanish  general  of  viceregal  days;  a 
blue  coat  with  red  facings  and  some  narrow  gold  lacej 
white  waistcoat,  knee-breeches  and  silk  stockings,  with  gold 
buckles  on  the  knee-straps,  and  low  shoes,  set  off  by  a 
big  cavalry  sabre  in  a  black  leather  scabbard.  His  vast 
shock  of  curly  reddish  hair  billowed  out  from  under  his 
tricolour-cockaded,  rather  flattish  cocked  hat ;  his  face  was 
florid,  his  eyebrows  very  bushy,  his  eyes  goggling  and 
prominent,  his  nose  low  at  the  bridge,  spread  wide  at  the 
nostrils,  and  so  flat  that  you  seemed  looking  into  two  round 
holes  in  his  face. 

Don  Gregorio  was  wearing  a  light  drab  coat  with  dove- 
coloured  facings  and  large,  cloudy  mother-of-pearl  buttons, 
a  gold  embroidered,  dove-coloured  waistcoat,  pearl-grey 
satin  knee-breeches  and  paler  silk  stockings.  His  knee- 
buckles  and  shoe-buckles  were  gold,  and  his  cocked  hat 
very  tall.  From  his  shoulders  hung  gracefully  behind  him 
a  brilliant  scarlet  capote,  one  of  those  riding-cloaks  which 
could  be  made  all-enveloping  on  occasion,  but  which  Span 
ish-American  gentlemen  seemed  to  delight  in  for  ornament 
only,  even  in  the  hottest  weather. 

He  was  a  great  contrast  to  his  bovine  neighbour,  a  Cas- 
tilian  at  all  points,  feet  and  hands  incredibly  small,  ankles 
and  wrists  delicately  slender,  every  proportion  graceful 
and  aristocratic,  his  eyebrows  pencilled,  his  brow  serene, 
his  eyes  wide-set,  small  and  brilliant,  his  nose  straight  and 
high,  his  expression,  like  his  demeanour,  irradiating  a 
courtly  good  will  and  alluring  to  affection  and  confidence. 

Padre  Lisardo  wore  an  amazing  jumble  of  discordant 
garments.  On  his  head  the  flat-crowned,  roll-brimmed 
shovel-hat  of  the  Spanish  parish  priest,  on  himself,  the 
long  habit  of  a  Franciscan  friar,  open  all  the  way  down 
and  showing,  under  it,  the  black  silk  waistcoat,  black 
satin  knee-breeches,  black  silk  stockings  and  low  black 
shoes  of  a  Doctor  of  Laws;  against  his  calves  the  sheath 
of  a  horseman's  sabre,  with  which  neither  priest  nor  lawyer 
had  any  business,  and  over  his  shoulder  a  purplish-pink 
capote  rivalling  Dr.  Gregorio 's. 

He  was  a  medium-sized  man,  compactly  built  and  rather 
spare,  but  with  a  notably  protuberant  stomach.  His  face 


58  EL   SUPREMO 

was  dark,  the  jaws  with  a  bluish  tinge  from  a  close-shaven 
beard  under  the  skin. 

While  Hawthorne  was  taking  all  this  in,  only  himself 
and  his  host  had  spoken,  rather  in  a  one-sided  fashion. 

Barely  had  the  doctor  settled  his  prodigious  rapier- 
sheath  against  his  leg  when  he  burst  out  sonorously : 

''This  poor  abode  of  mine  is  henceforth  yours,  Senor 
Don  Guillermo,  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night,  for  any 
necessity  or  caprice  that  may  actuate  you.  Use  it  as  your 
own,  I  beg  of  you.  Observe  it,  consider  it,  become  ac 
quainted  with  it.  This  room,  as  you  see,  is  my  warehouse, 
wine-room,  shop,  office,  living-room,  drawing-room  and 
dining-room.  What  do  you  think  of  it,  Serior  Don  Guil 
lermo?" 

"I  think "  Hawthorne  began. 

"True!"  his  host  interrupted  him.  "Most  true.  Your 
observations  are  just  in  every  particular.  But  as  you  ob 
serve,  this  is  not  such  an  abode  as  befits  me,  not  such  as  I 
aja  used  to.  It  suffices,  it  suffices,  Senor  Don  Guillermo, 
for  the  five  months  or  so  of  each  year  which  I  spend  a£ 
Asuncion,  but  it  is  not  such  a  dwelling  as  the  house  of 
my  father,  of  my  grandfather,  of  my  ancestors  since  Hur- 
tado  de  Mendoza  's  time.  Its  patio  would  contain  four  such 
properties  as  this  of  mine,  wall,  hedge  and  all;  its  sola 
would  hold  this  entire  house  and  leave  room  between  its 
ridgepole  and  the  gilded  rafters  of  its  panelled  ceiling; 
its  walls  are  coloured  tiles,  its  floors  variegated  marbles, 
its  furniture  inlaid  and  carved,  its  beds  heavens  of  sleep, 
its  dining-hall  a  paradise  of  feasting. 

"Not  a  viceroy,  from  the  time  of  the  great  Conde  de 
Neva,  but  has  been  a  guest  there;  the  great  Francisco  de 
Toledo  honoured  it  with  his  presence. 

"But  I  talk,  Senor  Don  Guillermo;  I  talk  instead  of 
listening  to  your  discourse,  which  I  so  long  to  enjoy. 

"What,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  do  you  think  of  Asun 
cion?" 

"I  think "  Hawthorne  began. 

Again  he   was  interrupted. 

"Your  remark,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  shows  an  amazing 
power  of  comprehension.  You  have  the  very  spirit  of 
Asuncion,  its  essence,  its  reality,  already  by  heart.  But 
Asuncion,  great  and  wonderful  as  it  is,  was  never,  speaking 


WINE-SHOP   OF   DOCTOR   BARGAS   59 

justly,  to  be  compared  to  Mendoza.  You  should  behold 
Mendoza,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo.  There  is  the  poor  home  of 
my  fathers,  to  which  I  have  alluded;  there  are  my  house 
hold  gods,  there  is  my  property.  There  I  have  been  twice 
Alcalde  de  primer  voto,  Mayor  in  short,  Mayor  of  Men 
doza.  From  Mendoza  I  have  been  member  of  the  Audiencia 
of  Charcas,  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  viceroyalty,  such 
was  my  reputation  at  Mendoza  for  erudition  in  law  and 
discretion  in  dealing  with  legal  questions. 

"But  I  have  abandoned  the  law,  Senor  Don  Guillermo, 
except  now  and  then,  you  understand,  to  oblige  a  friend. 
I  must  provide  for  my  family,  Senor  Don  Guillermo. 

"Six  children,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  six  angels,  cherubs, 
seraphs.  My  good  friend,  the  Marquess  de  Torretagle  de 
Lima,  has  often  said  to  me  that  never,  nowhere,  had  he 
seen  such  children.  They  are  like  their  mother,  Senor  Don 
Guillermo.  Such  a  woman!  Such  delicacy  of  spirit! 
Such  intellect!  Such  charm!  Such  a  noble  woman!  A 
small  waist,  a  small  neck,  neat  ankles,  small  wrists,  tiny 
feet  and  hands,  such  are  the  marks  of  race  universally 
acknowledged.  But  not  the  only  marks  of  race  nor  the 
chief  charm  of  women  of  race. 

"The  hang  of  a  woman's  skirts,  Senor  Don  Guillermo; 
that,  I  say,  in  a  woman  possessing  all  the  other  character 
istics,  is  the  last  and  supreme  sign  of  the  possession  of 
blue  blood  for  generations.  Watch  a  woman  as  she  walks 
tip  the  church  before  you,  watch  her  on  promenade.  Have 
her  skirts  that  sway  and  swing  which  is  the  very  music  of 
motion  ?  Then  she  is  refined  to  the  last  degree  in  ancestry, 
nature  and  up-bringing.  Such  is  my  wife,  truly  abundante 
de  nalgas,  truly  possessing  the  highest  charm  of  woman 
hood. 

* '  For  her,  for  my  cherubim,  I  must  provide.  The  emolu 
ment  of  a  judge  of  Audiencia,  the  fees  of  a  licentiate  of 
law,  these  are  insufficient.  I  am  lucky.  Our  family  pos 
sesses  a  vineyard,  a  large  vineyard,  the  best  vineyard 
among  all  the  vineyards  of  Mendoza.  From  this  I  draw 
my  revenues  like  my  ancestors  before  me.  It  is  to  sell 
my  Mendoza  wine  that  I  come  to  Asuncion.  Let  me  offer 
you  a  sample  of  my  best." 

The  voluble  doctor  swung  himself  off  his  table,  took 
up  one  of  the  silver  goblets  which  lay  on  the  skidded  casks, 


60  EL   SUPREMO 

drew  it  full  of  wine,  forced  it  on  Hawthorne,  handed  a 
similar  goblet  to  each  of  the  others,  filled  one  for  himself, 
and  reseated  himself  on  the  table-edge. 

"We  will  drink "  he  began. 

"You  won't  drink  at  all  without  me!"  a  thick  voice, 
familiar  to  Hawthorne,  interrupted  him. 

All  turned.  In  the  doorway  to  the  inner  room  stood  the 
little  English  surgeon,  swaying  a  trifle  on  his  feet. 

"That  woke  me!"  he  expanded.  "Speak  of  drink  and 
(Tom  Parlett  is  awake." 

He  advanced  unsteadily. 

"Introduce  us  properly,  Jenofonte,"  he  gurgled  re 
proachfully.  "He  and  I  have  not  yet  been  formally  pre 
sented  to  each  other." 

And  he  clasped  Hawthorne's  hand  in  his,  while  their 
host,  as  it  were,  intoned  a  benediction  over  them. 

<rDon  Guillermo  Atorno,  Doctor  Toinas  Parlett/' 

Filling  another  goblet,  he  handed  it  to  the  doctor. 

"And  now,"  he  said,  "let  us  drink  to  the  glory  and 
prosperity  de  los  Estados  Unidos  del  America  del  Norte." 

All  drank,  bowing  to  Hawthorne,  who  bowed  in  turn. 

When  they  had  reseated  themselves  Dr.  Parlett  began 
humming  an  air ;  after  a  few  bars  droned  on  into  maudlin 
singing  in  English: 

"Lost  her  sheep,  lost  her  sheep,  and  don't  know  where 
to  find  'em;  but  leave  'em  alone  and  they'll  come  home, 
bringing  their  tails  behind  'em." 

Hawthorne  saw  a  subtle  but  unmistakable  alteration  of 
demeanour  occur  in  every  man  present. 

The  host  called  sharply: 

"Bopi!" 

A  mulatto  boy,  a  duplicate  of  Mayorga  's  servitor, .  ap 
peared  in  the  court-yard  door-way. 

Dr.  Bargas  spoke  to  him  in  Guarani;  he  grunted  and 
turned  away.  In  a  moment  he  returned,  a  round  hat  on 
his  head,  and  shambled  out  of  the  street-door. 

"And  now,  sweet  William,"  the  muzzy  surgeon  said  in 
English,  "I  may  tell  you  that  you  are  in  the  right  pew! 
You  may  trust  me,  my  lad!" 

He  changed  to  Spanish: 

"Jenofonte,"  he  proclaimed,  "I'll  show  the  newcomer 
over  the  premises." 


WINE-SHOP    OF    DOCTOR   BARGAS    61 

"Over  my  premises, "  Dr.  Bargas  exclaimed,  question- 
ingly,  quizzically  and  reprovingly. 

"Be  sensible,  Jenofonte,"  Parlett  retorted.  "He'll  un 
derstand  my  English  much  easier  than  your  Spanish. 
And  111  be  quicker,  anyhow." 

"Come  on,  Jonathan,"  he  added  in  English  to  Haw 
thorne.  "Let  me  show  you  the  ropes." 

Hawthorne  followed  acquiescently  through  the  left-hand 
door. 

He  found  himself  in  a  room  about  a  quarter  the  size 
of  the  one  from  which  he  had  come.  It.  had  a  second  door 
to  his  right  opening  on  the  patio,  and  in  each  of  the  other 
walls  a  large,  sashless,  closely  jalousied  window.  As  in 
the  shop  the  rafters  were  rough  and  blackened,  the  walls 
white-washed,  and  the  floor  worn  brick.  Two  of  the  cor 
ners  were  piled  up  with  baskets  of  dried  figs  from  Men- 
doza;  a  third  with  small  petacones  for  fine  cigars;  in  the 
fourth  stood  a  tall  water- jar  of  red  earthenware.  The 
other  furniture  consisted  of  an  ample  rack  with  an  old 
silver-mounted,  velvet-covered  saddle,  a  leather  saddle, 
several  bridles  and  other  horse-gear;  a  bed  which  was  a 
mere  low  hide-stretcher;  a  gorgeous  red,  green  and  blue 
hammock,  hanging  corner-wise  across  the  room,  and  two 
chairs,  tall-backed  and  hide-seated,  on  one  of  which  by  the 
water- jar  stood  a  silver  wash-basin.  On  the  walls  hung  a 
long-barrelled  fowling-piece,  a  short,  bell-mouthed  blunder 
buss,  and  a  brace  of  horseman's  pistols.  Clothes  hung  on 
pegs,  on  the  horserack,  on  the  chairs,  and  lay  on  the  bed, 
even  on  the  floor,  which  was  littered  with  boots,  shoes, 
papers  and  oranges. 

"This,"  said  the  surgeon,  "is  our  host's  bedroom.  I 
snooze  here  quite  a  deal." 

He  passed  out  into  the  shaded  patio.  It  was  a  nearly 
circular  enclosure,  broken  only  by  the  house.  In  it  stood 
two  mud-walled  huts,  through  the  door  of  one  of  which 
Hawthorne  could  see  a  fire  smouldering  on  a  sand-pit  in 
the  middle  of  the  earth  floor. 

' '  That 's  where  Bopi  cooks  the  doctor  *s  asado  and  guisado 
and  olla>  and  all  the  rest  of  it,"  the  surgeon  said,  "and 
that  other's  where  he  sleeps.  I  call  him  little  Bo  Peep, 
and  when  I  think  we  are  trending  towards  conversation 
our  one-eyed  friend  had  better  not  hear,  I  hum  the  nursery 


62  EL   SUPREMO 

tune  at  them.  They  know  it  by  this  time,  fairly  knowing 
the  words.  Jenofonte  sends  him  off  on  a  wild  goose  chase 
and  we're  safe.  See?" 

Hawthorne  nodded. 

"This  place,"  Parlett  continued,  "was  built  by  Espinosa 
as  part  of  his  vacillating  provision  for  his  government 
tobacco-monopoly.  It  stands  all  by  itself,  has  a  wall  no 
man  could  climb,  and  a  cactus  hedge  no  man  could  scramble 
through.  It's  an  ideal  place  for  a  warehouse,  for  valuable 
merchandise,  so  there  is  nothing  suspicious  in  our  good 
doctor  renting  it.  Therefore,  for  all  reasons,  it  is  the 
safest  place  for  conversation  in  all  Asuncion,  or  certainly 
the  least  dangerous.  You  understand?" 

Hawthorne  nodded  again,  and  they  returned  to  the 
warehouse. 

They  found  Dr.  Bargas  on  one  knee  by  a  wine-skid 
drawing  a  tankard  of  wine.  This  he  handed  to  a  bare 
foot,  barelegged  poncho-clad  Indian  peon  with  a  red  ban 
danna  tied  round  his  head.  While  the  Indian  gulped  down 
the  wine  the  doctor  opened  a  petacon,  took  out  a  handful 
of  cigars,  and  held  them  out  to  the  peon,  who  took  two, 
found  a  small  coin  in  his  belt,  paid  his  reckoning,  and 
shuffled  out. 

Then  Hawthorne  noticed  a  neat,  respectful  native 
woman,  with  a  bundle  on  her  head.  This  she  swung  down 
and  handed  to  Dr.  Bargas.  He  opened  it,  counted  the 
cigars,  and  after  a  brief  chaffering  in  guttural  Guarani, 
paid  her,  and  dumped  the  cigars  carelessly  into  a  petacon, 
shutting  the  lid  over  them. 

But  before  the  woman  went  out  a  poorly-dressed  old 
Spaniard  had  entered,  a  man  who  might  have  been  a  car 
penter  or  other  sort  of  mechanic. 

"Ah,  Pablo,"  the  doctor  had  greeted  him,  "the  papers 
are  all  ready,  as  I  promised." 

He  opened  his  bufete,  handed  the  old  man  a  packet,  and 
said: 

"One  peso  is  enough,  Pablo." 

The  old  man  fumbled  in  a  pocket,  brought  out  the  silver 
coin,  and  went  away,  after  a  civil  salutation  to  the  com 
pany,  returned  with  equal  civility. 

"And  now,"  the  little  surgeon  began,  "since  our  busy 
doctor  has  a  moment's  leisure  and  we  are  all  to  ourselves. 


THE   MALCONTENTS  63 

I  want  to  tell  you,  Don  Guillermo,  that  you  are  in  the  right 
shop  at  last.  Here  we  speak  our  minds  on  any  subject 
and  dare  to  utter  any  man 's  name. ' ' 

"Yes.     Any  man's  name/'  Don  Fulgencio  parroted. 

Half  the  ruddy  colour  faded  out  of  his  face  as  he  spoke. 

"Even  the  name  of  Dr.  Francia?"  Hawthorne  enun 
ciated  crisply. 

"Even  that  name!"  Don  Gregorio  and  Padre  Lisardo 
affirmed,  in  very  forced  tones. 

Hawthorne  noted  that  neither  pronounced  the  name. 

"Even  the  name  of  Dr.  Francia/'  the  little  surgeon 
echoed  valorously,  but  he  went  mottled  all  over  his  face  as 
he  uttered  the  dread  syllables,  adding  with  an  effort,  with 
a  sort  of  explosion: 

"We  all  hate  him  here !" 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  MALCONTENTS 

DO  I  hate  him ? ' '  Hawthorne  ruminated,  his  calm  eyes 
full  on  the  surgeon's. 

"Any  son  of  liberty  and  countryman  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  ought  to  hate  him,  sight  unseen,"  Parlett  as 
severated  vehemently.  "If  you  don't  hate  him  to-day 
you  will  by  this  hour  to-morrow,  yes,  by  now  to-morrow. 
You  haven't  the  grilles  on  your  legs;  you  aren't  in  his 
dungeon  or  his  cuartel,  but  you  are  his  prisoner  in  his 
prison  as  I  am.  All  Paraguay  is  his  prison.  You  are  as 
much  his  prisoner  as  I  and  ought  to  hate  him  as  I  do." 

"Why  do  you  hate  him?"  Hawthorne  queried  placidly, 
with  the  open-minded  air  of  an  unbiased  investigator  prob 
ing  for  information. 

"Reason  enough  for  me,  my  boy,"  Parlett  declared. 
"He  won't  let  me  go  home. 

"' Let  you  go,'  he  says.  ' Never!  Why,  you're  the  only 
capable  surgeon  in  Paraguay.  Shall  I  let  all  the  natives 
and  the  city  and  all  the  hacendados  and  their  families  and 
all  the  clergy  and  government  and  myself  depend  on  quacks 
like  Baiguer,  fools  like  Sabola,  dolts  like  Narvaez?  No,' 
says  he,  'you're  too  valuable  to  let  go.  Here  you'll  stay/ 


64  EL    SUPREMO 

says  he.  '  And  why  do  you  want  to  leave  ? '  says  he.  '  Isn  't 
the  climate  salubrious,  the  scenery  lovely,  the  city  beauti 
ful,  the  people  charming?  Don't  you  live  well  and  com 
fortably  in  luxury  and  abundance  ?  Don 't  you  coin  money 
all  the  year  round?  Oughtn't  you  to  be  happy,  honoured 
as  a  wizard  and  with  gold  poured  into  your  lap?' 

"  'What  good  is  gold  to  me/  says  I,  'if  I  gamble  it 
away  and  drink  it  up?' 

11  'Keep  sober,'  says  he,  'and  don't  gamble,  and  you'll 
stay  rich.  It's  your  own  fault  if  you  spend  faster  than 
you  make.  You  are  paid  high  and  always  in  demand. 
Stay  sober  as  I  do.' 

"  '  I  could  stay  sober, '  says  I,  *  if  I  knew  I  could  go  home 
with  my  earnings  when  I've  made  my  fortune.  But  to 
live  and  die  in  this  cursed  hole  makes  my  gorge  rise.  I'm 
that  homesick  I  get  drunk  for  comfort  and  gamble  for 
forgetfulness.  To  know  I  could  go  home  would  make  a 
man  of  me.' 

"  'Be  a  man  yourself/  says  he.  'Anyhow,  here  you 
stay/  says  he. 

"So  off  I  go  and  get  drunk  and  stay  drunk.  I'll  die 
here  in  this  hell  of  a  country.  Small  wonder  that  I  hate 
him.  He's  murdering  me  before  my  time,  forcing  me  to 
liquor  to  forget  I'm  his  prisoner.  Hate  him!  You  bet  I 
hate  him!" 

The  fat  little  man  shook  with  unaffected  Celtic  rage. 

Hawthorne  turned  to  the  sword-girt  monk. 

"Why  do  you  hate  him?"  he  questioned. 

"I!"  Padre  Bogarin  exclaimed.  "Why  do  I  not  hate 
him?  Must  not  any  good  son  of  Holy  Church,  still  more 
any  ecclesiastic,  hate  him  consumedly?  He  is  an  open 
free-thinker,  boasting  of  his  confidence  in  his  own  judg 
ment,  contemning  the  Holy  Evangel,  tradition  and  author 
ity,  publicly  deriding  the  clergy.  He  says  we  are  of  no 
use  in  the  world;  we  make  people  believe  rather  in  the 
devil  than  in  God! 

"He  talks  of  God,  but  his  god  is  the  god  of  Voltaire, 
worse  than  heathen  gods,  worse  than  no  god.  Prating  of 
what  god  he  pleases  to  fashion  for  himself  he  undermines 
the  faith  of  all  he  meets  and  allures  them  to  everlasting 
perdition.  And  his  example  is  worse  than  his  utterances. 
From  the  very  day  he  was  sure  of  his  popularity,  of  his 


THE   MALCONTENTS  65 

influence,  he  ceased  to  attend  the  offices  of  religion.  Never, 
since  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Cabildo  full  thirteen 
years  ago,  has  he  heard  mass  or  so  much  as  entered  a 
church  during  mass.  The  sight  of  him  in  church  at  mass 
would  startle  beholders  far  more  than  an  earthquake; 
would  seem  to  our  Guaranies  far  more  of  a  portent  than 
ever  did  the  eclipses  at  which  they  no  longer  shudder  since 
he  has  instructed  them  that  the  phenomena  he  predicts  to 
the  hour  occur  not  by  the  will  of  God,  but  by  the  operation 
of  natural  laws. 

''Since  he  ceased  attending  to  his  Christian  duties  he 
has  been  inside  a  church  only  when  the  conventions  met  in 
our  Cathedral,  because  no  other  building  in  Asuncion  is 
large  enough  (or  such  an  assemblage.  There,  in  the  pres 
ence  of  all  the  notables  of  Paraguay,  he  has  cynically  dis 
played  his  contempt  for  the  holiness  of  a  consecrated 
edifice,  especially  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  first  conven 
tion.  That  was  in  July  of  1811,  just  five  years  ago  next 
month,  four  months  after  our  defeat  of  the  invaders  and 
two  months  after  the  pronunciamento. 

' '  The  meeting  was  presided  over  by  Don  Bernardo  Ye- 
lasco,  our  ex-governor  and  president  of  the  temporary 
junta  which  had  taken  charge  of  affairs  after  the  pro 
nunciamento,  and  by  Bishop  Evaristo  de  Panes.  He  had 
given  the  delegates  his  benediction  and  Don  Bernardo  had 
stated  that  the  object  of  the  Congress  was  to  debate  whe 
ther  Charles  the  Fourth  had  never  ceased  to  be  our  king, 
or  whether  Ferdinand  the  Seventh  had,  by  his  father's 
abdications,  become  king  and  had  remained  so  after  his 
own  abdications;  to  decide  to  which  our  loyal  allegiance 
was  properly  due. 

"Then  up  rose  this  demon,  this  Apollyon  incarnate. 

"Naturally,  as  the  most  esteemed  layman  in  Paraguay, 
as  the  most  erudite  and  proficient  jurist  in  Asuncion,  as 
the  most  eloquent  orator  and  the  most  elegant  writer 
among  us,  he  had  been  made  secretary  of  the  junta  and  of 
the  convention. 

"A  small  table  had  been  placed  on  the  platform  to 
the  left  of  the  Bishop's  and  Intendente's  armchairs.  At 
this  he  sat,  his  back  to  the  window,  in  a  small  armless 
chair,  a  conspicuous  figure. 

"He  arose.    From  his  breast  he  drew  one  of  his  long- 


66  EL   SUPREMO 

barrelled  horseman's  pistols.  He  laid  it  upon  the  table  in 
front  of  him.  At  sight  of  a  weapon  in  the  house  of  God 
all  held  their  breath  in  horror !  The  sacrilegious  audacity 
of  the  wretch  froze  every  muscle  of  the  assemblage.  He 
spoke.  The  habit  of  listening  to  him  in  court  and  in 
public  places  swayed  us  all,  even  us  of  the  church,  of  the 
government.  He  spoke  in  a  loud,  clear  voice.  Every  man 
in  the  convention,  every  spectator  in  the  crowds  standing 
around  the  walls  and  at  the  lower  end  of  the  cathedral 
heard  him. 

11  'This  convention,'  he  said,  'will  not  spend  one  moment 
on  debating  whether  the  cowardly  father  or  the  craven  son 
is  king  of  Spain.  Each  has  abdicated  and  abdicated  again. 
Each  has  shown  his  feeble  mind  and  treacherous  heart. 
Neither  is  justly  any  longer  king  of  anywhere. 

'But  let  either  be  king  of  Spain,  let  neither  be  king 
of  Spain,  what  care  we  ?  Neither  of  them  to  a  certainty  is 
any  longer  king  of  Paraguay.  That  was  settled  at  Buenos 
Aires  a  year  ago  last  May  and  at  Paraguay  last 
March.  Paraguay  is  no  appanage  of  Spain,  no  province 
of  Buenos  Aires.  Paraguay  is  independent  and  a 
republic. 

'The  sole  question  that  shall  be  debated  before  this 
congress  and  decided  by  majority  vote  is  how  we  may  best 
vindicate  and  maintain  our  independence  against  Spain, 
Lima,  Buenos  Aires  and  Brazil;  how  we  may  preserve 
internal  peace;  how  we  may  promote  the  prosperity  of 
Paraguay  and  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  Paraguay ;  in  short, 
what  form  of  government  we  are  to  adopt. 

"  'My  arguments  in  favour  of  my  expressed  views  are 
two  only.  You  perceive  the  former.' 

"He  lifted  the  pistol  from  the  table. 

"  'You  behold  the  latter!'  he  shrilled  like  a  bugle. 

"From  his  other  inside  breast-pocket  he  drew  a  second 
silver-mounted,  shining-barrelled  pistol,  his  finger  on  the 
trigger. 

'I  shall  put  my  opinions  in  the  form  of  a  motion/ 
he  said  measuredly.  'It  is  this: 

"  'That  the  deliberations  of  this  congress  shall  be  con 
fined  to  debating  the  best  methods  for  establishing  a  re 
publican  form  of  government  in  Paraguay  and  perpetuat 
ing  its  peaceful  independence. 


THE    MALCONTENTS  67 

"  fl  have  written  this  motion  in  fair  characters  on  a 
sheet  of  paper.  Here  it  is.' 

"He  handed  the  paper  to  his  page-boy,  who  presented 
it  to  the  ex-Intendente. 

11  'Senor  Don  Bernardo/  says  this  grinning  devil,  'you 
are  the  presiding  officer  of  this  convention.  You  have  the 
motion  before  you.  Will  you  put  the  motion?' 

"No  man  save  this  wily  fiend  had  dreamed  of  bringing 
a  loaded  pistol  into  a  church.  We  all  had  our  swords,  but 
what  were  swords  against  two  pistols  such  as  his  in  the 
hands  of  a  cool  man  renowned  for  his  ability  to  hit  at  each 
shot  a  flying  sparrow? 

"No  man  spoke. 

"Don  Bernardo  read  the  motion  aloud. 

"  'Do  I  hear  any  second  to  this  motion?'  he  asked. 

"Then  up  rose  Don  Prudencio  la  Guardia. 

"  'I,'  he  said,  'second  this  motion.' 

"  'The  motion,'  said  Don  Bernardo,  *y°u  have  heard. 
It  is  now  open  for  debate.' 

"  'I  have  but  two  arguments  for  this  motion,'  spoke 
the  grinning  fiend.  'You  behold  them.  Has  any  man  bet 
ter  arguments?' 

"No  man  spoke.  There  was  a  long  silence.  Then  up 
spoke  this  Mephistopheles  again. 

"  'It  appears,  your  Excellency,'  he  said,  'that  the 
convention  is  ready  to  vote  on  the  motion  without 
debate!' 

"Don  Bernardo  put  the  motion.  No  man  voted  against 
it. 

"Shall  I  not  hate  so  masterful  a  devil? 

"And  he  has  done  worse  since  than  mere  desecration 
of  a  church!  He  has  dissolved  the  Holy  Inquisition  and 
permits  any  man  to  hold  any  opinions  that  please  him, 
however  blasphemous. 

"What  is  more,  he  has  confiscated  to  the  state  nine-tenths 
of  the  lawful  revenues  of  our  Bishop,  of  the  Cathedral 
Chapter,  of  the  Monasteries,  and  of  the  parish  churches. 
And  he  talks  of  abolishing  tithes  altogether. 

"Seeing  Holy  Church  and  my  order  insulted,  humiliated 
and  robbed,  must  I  not  hate  him?" 

Padre  Lisardo  paused  for  mere  lack  of  breath. 

Hawthorne  turned  to  the  giant  Gaucho. 


68  EL   SUPREMO 

11  And  you,  Don  Fulgencio?"  he  queried.  "Why  do  you 
hate  him?" 

"I?"  Yegros  enunciated  ponderously,  "Who  should  be 
\  first  in  this  republic  ?  Is  it  not  I  who  beat  back  the  Por- 
teiios  from  our  city?  Was  it  not  I  who  hemmed  in  their 
army  ?  Was  it  not  I  who  compelled  Don  Manuel  Belgrano 
to  surrender  with  all  his  forces?  Was  it  not  I  who  vin 
dicated  the  freedom  of  Paraguay  ?  A  country  is  not  made 
free  by  pronunciamentos,  by  juntas,  by  cabildos,  but  by 
force  of  arms.  It  was  iny  stand  at  Paraguary  that  checked 
General  Belgrano  in  his  victorious  advance.  It  was  my 
cavalry,  who,  while  this  scrivener  skulked  in  the  city,  when 
Intendente  Velasco  had  fled  from  the  camp,  after  Cabal- 
lero  and  his  infantry  were  defeated,  held  back  the  main 
body  of  Porteiios  and  gave  Cabanas  the  chance  to  over 
whelm  Kamirez  and  his  advance-guard.  It  was  I  who  won 
the  second  battle  on  January  nineteenth.  But  for  me  Bel 
grano  would  never  have  surrendered  and  Asuncion  would 
now  be  a  mere  capital  of  a  province,  a  mere  tributary  of 
Buenos  Aires.  If  the  Porteiios  acknowledged  our  inde 
pendence,  if  we  are  free,  it  is  my  doing.  I  see  myself  set 
aside.  And  for  him !  I  could  have  endured  to  give  way  to 
Cabaiias,  though  he  would  never  have  been  victor  at 
Tacuari  had  I  not  held  out  at  Paraguary.  I  could  have 
borne  to  step  aside  for  Caballero.  His  infantry,  though 
repulsed,  kept  together  and  fought  gallantly.  All  men 
know  that  it  is  said  that  cavalry  are  but  helpers  to  in 
fantry,  that  without  infantry  cavalry  can  do  nothing.  I 
should  not  have  resented  seeing  myself  ignored  for  Zeval- 
los.  His  squadrons  did  near  as  well  as  mine  in  both 
battles.  But  to  be  shoved  aside  for  a  tinterillo  who  did  not 
so  much  as  run  away,  this  is  unendurable ! 

"And  the  manner  of  his  insidious  wiles  is  worse  than 
the  fact.  I  was  hailed  as  saviour  of  the  city,  of  the  coun 
try,  and  justly.  And  I  must  look  on  and  behold  my  own 
troopers  set  against  me,  wheedled  and  suborned  till  I 
knew  I  could  no  longer  depend  on  their  fidelity,  and  that 
he  who  never  swung  a  sword  or  fired  a  pistol  in  the  whole 
war  could  be  certain  of  their  obedience,  of  their  alacrity. 
This  is  wormwood  to  drink  indeed.  Even  after  all  his  in 
trigues  he  could  not  relegate  me  to  insignificance  by  his 
snachinations.  When  the  republic  was  to  elect  consuls  for 


THE   MALCONTENTS  69 

a  year,  the  second  convention  chose  me  first  and  him  second. 
Then  he  devised  for  me  a  trap,  a  trick,  a  snare.  We  were 
to  be  inaugurated  consuls  together.  The  people  crowded 
the  Plaza,  the  troops  paraded,  the  bands  played  war-tunes, 
my  heart  swelled.  On  the  platform  before  the  Cabildo  we 
took  our  oaths  to  save  the  republic.  The  chairs  were  set 
for  us  under  the  crimson  canopy,  the  members  of  the 
juntas,  of  the  Cabildo,  the  city  delegates  to  the  second 
convention  stood  about  to  see  us  chaired. 

1 1  The  chairs  were  big,  made  for  the  occasion,  with  velvet 
cushions  on  the  seats,  inlay  everywhere,  and  carving  all 
over.  On  the  back  of  each  was  a  medallion  and  on  it  a 
name.  I  saw  carved  in  big  letters,  inlaid  with  mother-of- 
pearl  : 

"  'Cesar9 

"  'Pompeyo' 

"The  names  meant  nothing  to  me.  I  had  never  heard 
of  Csesar  or  Pompey. 

"Says  this  sly  devil  to  me,  soft  and  bland: 

"  'Which  chair  will  you  choose,  General?' 

'  *  I,  not  to  be  outdone  in  politeness  by  a  tinterillo,  reply : 

"  'They  are  all  the  same  to  me.  A  chair  is  a  chair;  I 
give  you  the  choice/ 

"Whereupon  he  seats  himself  in  the  chair  labelled 
'Cesar.'  I  take  the  other.  I  think:  'I  am  Consul,  coequal 
with  this  man,  half  at  least  of  the  whole  government  of 
Paraguay.'  I  am  deceived.  Alas,  how  much  deceived! 
I  find  myself  from  that  moment  a  nobody,  a  jest,  a  joke. 
Whatever  I  propose  all  say  to  me, '  Be  silent.  You  yourself 
chose  the  Pompey  chair.  Henceforth  you  are  Pompey;  he 
is  Caesar.'  I  do  not  understand.  They  tell  me  of  Caesar 
and  of  Pompey.  I  comprehend.  I  am  silent.  I  yield  all 
to  this  demon,  this  satan.  But  even  then  I  do  not  wholly 
comprehend.  Little  by  little  I  learn.  I  ani  Pompey  not 
only  in  the  Government  House  but  everywhere.  Men 
who  would  not  have  dared  a  year  before  to  look  me  in 
the  eye  address  me  as  'Pompeyo'!  The  urchins  on  the 
street  yell  after  me,  'Pompeyo'! 

"Shall  I  not  hate  this  devil? 

"And,  when  our  year  of  consulship  is  over,  I  am  still 
'Pompeyo.'  And  then  he,  Dictator,  absolute,  all  powerful, 
says  to  me,  'Fulgencio'  (for  he  never  uses  the  nickname 


70  EL   SUPREMO 

he  has  fastened  on  me)  'I  have  refused  to  accept  the 
salary  voted  to  me  by  the  state;  the  republic  is  poor, 
bachelors  like  me  and  widowers  like  you  do  not  need  large 
incomes.  I  have  accepted  but  a  third  of  what  was  offered. 
It  is  for  you,  as  a  patriot,  to  accept  but  a  third  of  your 
pay  as  colonel. '  I  agree.  And  the  next  day  I  am  gazetted 
retired,  with  the  title  of  general  and  half  of  the  third  of 
the  pay  of  a  colonel ! 

'  'Paraguay  is  at  peace/  he  says.  'We  need  but  one 
regiment  of  infantry.  No  generals  are  needed,  and  one 
colonel  is  enough.  That  colonel's  name  is  Jose  Gaspar 
jRodriguez  de  Francia.' 

" Shall  I  not  hate  him?" 

Hawthorne  turned  to  his  host. 

"And  why  do  you  hate  him?"  he  queried. 

Dr.  Bargas  swung  his  foot  and  stared  out  of  the  open 
door.  Slowly  his  gaze  turned  to  meet  Hawthorne's  ques 
tioning  eyes. 

"When  you  have 'experienced  his  insulting  demeanour, 
his  contemptuous  treatment,  you  will  understand  why  I 
ha,te  him,"  he  said.  "And  also  because  he  has  increased 
the  taxes  on  Mendoza  figs  and  on  Mendoza  wine,  and  the 
export  taxes  on  cigars  and  yerba.  That  hits  me  every 
where.  What  is  more,  he  exacts  the  collection  of  every 
maravedi  of  each  separate  tax.  Now,  as  when  good  Don 
Bernardo  Velasco  was  Intendente,  so  under  the  first  and 
under  the  second  junta,  while  our  good  friend  here  Don 
Gregorio  was  Assessor  of  Customs,  I  never  paid  any  tax  in 
full.  I  paid  half  and  Don  Gregorio  had  a  gift  now  and 
then  and  the  state  could  well  afford  to  accept  half,  which 
was  all-  it  was  fairly  entitled  to  in  justice,  anyhow,  and 
we  were  all  satisfied.  Now  I  must  pay  all,  and  my  profits 
are  cut  to  nothing,  to  nothing,  and  my  income  reduced  to 
a  mere  pittance.  Surely  I  have  reason  to  hate  him ! ' ' 

"And  you,  Senor  Don  Gregorio?"  Hawthorne  asked. 
"Why  do  you  hate  him?" 

"I  am  not  sure,"  Don  Gregorio  ruminated,  "that  I  do 
hate  him.  I  am  not  a  good  hater.  But  if  I  hate  anybody 
I  surely  hate  him.  For  look  you,  I  was  a  member  of  the 
second  junta  and  continued  as  assessor  of  the  customs.  I 
was,  one  might  say,  the  government  for  the  time  being. 
I  received  many  presents,  as  Don  Jenofonte  has  said. 


THE    MALCONTENTS  711 

Presents  are  agreeable,  income  is  pleasant.  He  has  cut  off 
my  income,  I  receive  presents  no  more ;  I  am  a  poorer  man. 
But  I  do  not  think  I  hate  him  for  this.  I  am  a  member 
of  the  government  no  longer,  no  longer  assessor  of  the 
customs.  But  I  do  not  think  I  hate  hinr  for  this.  But  of 
old  I  could  help  my  godchildren,  my  godsons  and  god 
daughters,  my  ahijados  and  ahijadas.  I  could  help  all  the 
families  of  my  compadres  and  comadres,  as  a  good  padrino, 
a  good  compadre  should.  Now  I  am  without  power,  with 
out  influence.  A  godson  of  mine  wants  a  place  under 
.the  government,  a  goddaughter  of  mine  is  to  be  married 
and  her  bridegroom  wants  a  place  under  the  government. 
I  am  powerless;  I  am  without  influence;  I  must  see  the 
good  appointments  go  to  mere  peasants,  men  of  capacity 
perhaps,  but  not  at  all  of  good  family,  not  related  to  the 
families  of  my  fellow-godfathers  and  fellow-godmothers. 
Thus  my  compadres  and  comadres  honour  me  no  more,  see 
ing  that  I  no  longer  fulfil  the  duties  of  a  padrino,  of  a 
compadre,  that  I  no  longer  provide  places  for  my- godsons 
and  the  husbands  of  my  goddaughters.  So  I  feel  culpable 
and  a  bad  godfather,  a  bad  fellow-godfather.  My  con 
science  pricks  me  and  I  see  this  sly  fiend  sneer  at  me,  as 
no  longer  of  any  worth  in  the  republic,  since  he  has  ousted 
me.  Yet  of  old  I  was  of  importance.  I  was  assessor.  One 
came  to  me  and  asked  for  a  special  permit  to  sail  in  spite 
of  the  blockade.  I  gave  it,  if  he  was  related  to  one  of  my 
comadres  or  compadres.  He  got  his  permit.  His  ship  was 
allowed  to  sail.  Now  I  have  no  influence.  All  things  are 
in  the  hands  of  this  Dictator.  I  am  nobody.  All  proceeds 
according  to  his  decisions.  No  man  is  favoured  because  he 
is  related  to  any  one.  I  am  nobody." 

Hawthorne  almost  laughed  aloud  at  the  naive  fatuity 
of  the  grave  Don. 

Yet  he  had  not  the  heart  to  smile  in  the  face  of  his 
transparent  sincerity,  of  his  unclouded  reverence  and  en 
thusiasm  for  a  regime  of  favouritism  and  bribery. 

Padre  Lisardo  sighed. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "we  all  have  reason  to  hate  him.  And 
we  hate  in  vain.  We  are  powerless,  we  are  impotent.  We 
are  his  slaves.  No  man  in  Paraguay  can  make  head  against 
him;  no  man  dare  try.  Our  ancestors  were  daring;  we 
are  supine.  Our  ancestors  were  capable;  we  are  spineless. 


72  EL    SUPREMO 

We  do  nothing.  Nothing  can  be  done.  Perhaps  we  were 
not  well  off  under  our  King's  governors.  Surely  we  are 
worse  off  under  our  Dictator." 

He  sighed  again. 

1  i  Gentlemen, ' '  Hawthorne  exclaimed,  ' '  I  ask  your  indul 
gence.  Listen  to  me,  I  beg  of  you.  I  come  from  a  country 
which  is  better  off  under  a  republic  than  it  was  under  a 
king;  which  has  established  an  independence  without  a 
despotism.  I  come  of  a  race  which  dares  not  only  to  talk 
but  to  act,  which  dares  to  make  head  against  any  man.  I 
have  had  experiences  of  conspiracies,  insurrections,  wars 
and  battles.  I  have  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder  with 
Spaniards  and  Creoles  and  sat  with  them  in  council.  I 
will  never  believe  that  Spaniards  of  the  pure  blood  are 
spineless  or  are  supine  except  from  temporary  policy.  I 
come  from  a  land  which  possesses  true  liberty ;  I  love  true 
liberty.  I  have  come  to  Paraguay  in  the  belief  that  even 
now  somewhere  in  secret  there  is  a  movement  towards  true 
liberty.  I  have  come  to  find  that  movement,  to  join  it. 
I  believe  I  can  be  of  use  to  any  cause  I  join;  I  have  that 
confidence  in  myself.  With  that  confidence  I  have  come 
to  Asuncion  with  the  well-considered  purpose  of  ascer 
taining  whether  he  is  truly  what  I  hear,  and  if  so  of  com 
passing  the  overthrow  of  Dr.  Francia." 

Don  Fulgencio  turned  mottled  brown  all  over  his  face; 
!Padre  Lisardo  went  dead  pale;  Don  Gregorio's  genial 
countenance  set  with  a  death-mask  smirk;  Dr.  Bargas  un 
buckled  his  sword  belt  and  threw  sword,  belt  and  all  on 
a  chest  with  a  clatter. 

Parlett  exclaimed: 

"Bully  for  the  boy!  He's  a  valiant  cock-sparrow! 
Eagles  are  too  puny  for  him;  he'd  fight  nothing  smaller 
than  a  condor.  I  like  your  sporting  blood,  Jonathan.  You 
have  spirit!" 

"Don  Tomas!"  their  host  rebuked  him.  "Leave  jesting 
for  a  •suitable  occasion.  Don  Guillermo  speaks  seriously 
on  a  most  serious  matter.  None  more  serious  for  him  or 
for  us  could  be  thought  of.  Let  us  listen  to  him  as  he  asks. 
He  has  the  air  of  having  more  to  say." 

"I  have  more  to  say,"  Hawthorne  continued.  "You  all 
hate  him,  you  say.  I  look  to  find  at  Asuncion  a  nucleus 
of  men  intolerant  of  servitude  who  may  admit  me  to  their 


THE    MALCONTENTS  73 

councils;  a  body  of  bold  men,  his  enemies,  from  whom  a 
revolution  may  grow.  Can  you  guide  me  to  such  a  body  of 
men?" 

"We  are  such  a  body  of  men,"  Don  Gregorio  spoke,  now 
unsmiling,  with  a  drawn,  resolute  face. 

"And  what  is  more,"  Padre  Lisardo  added,  "I  can 
guarantee  for  all  of  us  that  if  you  will  come  here  again 
to-morrow  after  the  siesta  hour,  you  will  find  here  all  the 
tyrant's  chief  opponents,  to  the  number  of,  say,  thirty." 

"And  without  suspicion  either,"  Dr.  Bargas  perorated; 
"for  even  three  dozen  idlers  is  no  unusual  sight  here,  such 
is  the  popularity  of  my  cheap  and  excellent  Mendoza 
wine. ' ' 

"Your  immediate  confidence  in  me,"  Hawthorne  said, 
"is  equally  delightful  and  astonishing;  I  had  expected 
suspicion  and  reluctance." 

"Any  stranger,"  Dr.  Bargas  orated,  "would  be  an  ob 
ject  of  suspicion.  But  the  guest  of  Don  Vicente  Mayorga, 
the  friend  of  Don  Luis  Aldao  and  of  Don  Esteban  Perri- 
chon  is  no  stranger,  but  a  brother.  You  are  one  of  our 
selves.  We  trust  you  as  ourselves." 

Parlett,  facing  the  door,  began  to  hum  his  tune. 

All  assumed  attitudes  of  vacuous  idleness. 

There  entered  two  stout  Guarani  women,  middle-aged 
but  personable,  neat  and  clean.  Each  had  a  big  bundle  on 
\er  head. 

When  the  bundles  were  opened  Dr.  Bargas  examined 
the  leaf-tobacco,  chaffered  briefly  in  Guarani,  deposited 
the  tobacco  in  a  petacon,  fetched  two  baskets  of  Mendoza 
figs  from  his  bedroom,  handed  one  to  each  woman,  took 
some  coins  from  a  drawer  of  his  bit  fete,  gave  her  share 
to  each,  and  bowed  them  out  as  if  they  had  been 
duchesses. 

Yvhen  they  were  quite  gone  Don  Gregorio  spoke. 

"We  hear  from  Don  Tomas  that  my  godson,  Don 
Beltran  Jaray,  reached  Asuncion  to-day  with  you  by  the 
same  ship.  If  he  is  like  his  father,  if  he  has  fulfilled  the 
promise  he  gave  ten  years  ago,  if  he  has  acquired  the 
learning  and  experience  for  which  his  grandmother  sent 
him  to  Europe,  he  might  be  an  invaluable  addition  to  our 
meeting  to-morrow. ' ' 

"I  do  not  think,"  Hawthorne  meditated,  "that  we  can 


74  EL   SUPREMO 

count  on  Beltran.  In  fact,  I  fear  we  must  reckon  him 
against  us.  But  I  do  not  know.  After  four  months  on 
ship-board  with  Beltran  I  know  his  political  opinions  and 
his  purposes  as  little  as  he  knows  mine.  He  is  deep,  is 
Beltran,  for  all  his  genial  goodfellowship,  his  sunny  talka 
tiveness.  He  chatters  cheerily,  but  he  keeps  his  own  coun 
sel.  Our  talk  on  politics  has  been  all  vague  generalities. 
Expressions  of  main  principles  and  leading  tenets,  which 
might  be  applied  either  way  to  any  specific  condition  in 
Paraguay  or  elsewhere. 

"As  soon  as  I  met  him  at  Buenos  Aires  I  realised  that 
I  could  not  be  open  with  him.  From  his  conversation  on 
ship-board,  at  Seiior  Aldao's  house  at  Santa  Fe,  at  Seiior 
Perrichon's  at  Corrientes,  I  infer  that  he  is  greatly  under 
the  domination  of  the  personality  of  the  late  French  Em 
peror  and  of  Napoleon's  theories  of  government,  of  the 
idea  of  one-man  rule.  I  also  gather  that  he  was  greatly 
disgusted  with  the  character  of  the  Spaniards  as  he  knew 
them  in  Spain,  and  feels  contempt  for  the  nobles  as  men, 
administrators  and  soldiers.  I  know  he  is  greatly  in 
censed  against  the  restored  king  for  his  treatment  of  all 
who  sided  with  the  French,  lumping  together  men  who 
fought  at  Baylen  or  Saragossa  and  joined  Joseph  Bona 
parte  after  his  second  return  to  Madrid  only  from  motives 
of  policy  with  the  contemptible  tools  of  Godoy,  who  be 
trayed  their  country  to  Bonaparte  in  the  first  instance, 
classing  all  together  as  Afranciscados.  This  has  embittered 
him  against  the  monarchy. 

''And  besides,  he  speaks  of  independent  Paraguay  with 
all  a  Porteno  Creole's  enthusiasm  for  an  independent 
Buenos  Aires. 

"Yet  he  is  a  most  devout  Catholic,  shocked  at  any  con 
travention  of  the  church's  authority.  Likewise  he  seems 
more  than  theoretically  convinced  that  government,  of 
whatever  form,  must  rest  on  the  satisfied  approbation  of 
all  the  population  governed. 

"Also  he  certainly  changed  sides  positively  in  Spain, 
fighting  furiously  for  the  insurrection  and  zealously  for 
the  juntas  and  Cortes;  yet  being  also  a  vigorous  partisan 
of  the  French  after  he  was  disgusted  with  the  incom 
petence  and  self-seeking  of  the  patriots. 

"Whichever  party  he  joins  must  keep  him  by  keeping 


BATHING   BY    MOONLIGHT         7$ 

his  approbation.  I  think  he  will  side  with  our  arch-foe. 
But  we  might  win  him  over  yet. ' ' 

"At  any  rate/'  said  Padre  Bogarin,  "we  shall  not  con 
sider  him  to-morrow.  "We  must  have  here  none  but  men 
we  can  thoroughly  depend  on  and  only  the  most  important 
of  those." 

"Besides,"  Dr.  Bargas  twinkled,  "if  we  took  to  inviting 
your  godsons,  Gregorio,  we  should  betray  ourselves.  This 
shop  would  not  hold  them." 

"No,"  Parlett  added,  "nor  the  patio,  not  if  they  were 
piled  up  like  firewood  to  the  top  of  the  wall." 

Don  Gregorio  beamed. 

"I  am  popular  as  a  godfather,"  he  acknowledged. 

"We  meet  here,  then,"  Padre  Bogarin  resumed,  "after 
the  siesta  hour  to-morrow." 

All  signified  agreement. 

Hawthorne  stood  up. 

"It  is  near  sunset,"  he  said,  "and  I  must  be  going." 

"Let  me  go  with  you,"  said  Don  Gregorio  with  a  sort 
of  air  of  all-enveloping  protection.  "I  go  close  by  Don 
.Vicente's." 

CHAPTER  VII 

BATHING   BY    MOONLIGHT 

OUTSIDE  Hawthorne  started  along  the  built-up  street 
by  which  he  had  come.  But  Don  Gregorio  indicated 
the  turn  to  their  right,  around  the  wall  of  the  patio. 

"Doubtless,"  he  said,  "you  came  along  the  Plaza.  This 
way  is  a  trifle  longer  but  pleasanter." 

They  entered  a  small,  open  triangle,  a  high  bank  before 
them,  topped  by  a  cactus  hedge.  Keeping  the  bank  to  the 
left  they  ascended  a  narrow  street,  with  low  orange-shaded 
walls  opposite  the  hedge  and  bank. 

As  they  climbed,  Don  Gregorio  began  tentatively: 

"Am  I  to  understand  that  you  were  not  very  friendly 
with  Beltran?" 

"Quite  the  reverse,"  Hawthorne  disclaimed  with 
warmth.  "So  amicable  that  our  reticence  with  each  other 
as  to  our  personal  political  views  cast  no  shade  over  our 
friendship.  I  would  wager  niy  life  that  I  have  no  better 


76  EL   SUPREMO 

friend  than  Beltran.  I  am  sure  there  is  no  man  I  love 
more  completely.  He  is  the  most  charming  fellow  on  earth. 
His  mere  presence  seems  to  change  the  weather  from  foul 
to  fair,  he  puts  all  of  us  in  such  a  good  humour  with 
ourselves  and  all  the  world.  I  never  met  any  one  with 
such  a  faculty  for  conciliating  at  once,  without  saying  or 
doing  anything,  the  good  will  of  all  mankind." 

"And  womankind?"  Don  Gregorio  queried. 

' i  Quite  as  conspicuously, ' '  Hawthorne  assured  him.  ' '  At 
Buenos  Aires  he  was  deluged  with  invitations  to  dinners 
and  tertulias,  dances  and  balls.  The  women  were  really 
daft  about  him.  At  the  palace  receptions  he  was,  you 
might  say,  mobbed,  and  created  a  real  sensation. 

"But  that  is  scarcely  a  wonder  for  so  handsome  and 
gallant  a  young  scholar  and  soldier.  His  universal  suc 
cess  with  the  men  was  the  marvel  to  me.  He  was  so  tactful 
that  he  gave  no  offence,  managed  himself  so  that  no  woman 
made  a  fool  of  herself  over  him  any  more  than  any  made 
a  fool  of  him.  Not  a  duel  with  any  brother,  husband  or 
lover;  not  even  one  quarrel." 

"He  must  have  his  father's  discretion,"  Don  Gregorio 
remarked  as  they  topped  the  hill.  The  last  rays  of  the 
sun,  as  it  sank  below  the  swells  of  the  Gran  Chaco,  struck 
on  them  across  the  lower  reaches  of  the  river  and  the 
down-stream  suburbs.  They  turned  to  their  left  round  a 
medium-sized  house. 

"His  father's  discretion,"  Don  Gregorio  repeated. 

"It  does  not  seem  to  be  only  discretion,"  Hawthorne 
amplified.  "It  is  a  sort  of  higher  faculty  of  the  heart  and 
soul  rather  than  of  the  mind,  fie  does  it  all  without  think-, 
ing  of  it.  And  his  effect  on  men  is  instantaneous.  The 
labourers  on  the  streets,  the  wharf-stevedores,  all  seemed  to 
worship  him  at  sight.  It  was  a  perpetual  wonder  to  me 
on  the  river  to  see  his  influence  with  the  crew.  The  pilot 
was  a  rough  Basque,  the  boatswains  Catalan  Creoles,  coarse 
and  brutal,  the  sailors  Payagua  Indians.  From  the  vaque- 
ano  himself  to  the  last  '  Payagua  they  were  perpetually 
watching  for  a  chance  to  serve  Beltran,  for  a  word  from 
him,  for  a  look.  If  he  spoke  to  a  Payagua  the  whole  day 
seemed  a  festival  to  the  fellow." 

"You  make  me  proud  of  my  godson,"  Don  Gregorio 
Baid. 


BATHING   BY   MOONLIGHT         77 

"You  have  a  right  to  be,"  Hawthorne  affirmed.  "He 
was  to  the  fore  in  the  outbreak  against  Godoy.  He  fought 
in  the  guerrilla  insurrection  from  the  first.  He  was  at 
Baylcn.  And  the  very  day  after  the  surrender  he  left 
Baylen  with  Don  Ruy  Guzman,  the  younger  brother  of 
the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  and  rode  with  him  fifteen 
leagues  a  day  half  across  Spain  to  Saragossa.  With  Don 
Buy  he  slipped  through  the  French  lines  into  the  city. 
He  had  three  weeks  of  house  to  house  fighting  and  was 
wounded  in  the  last  assault  before  the  truce.  He  stuck  it 
out  through  the  second  siege  and  was  all  but  killed  in  the 
explosion  of  the  Madre  de  Dios  bastion.  He  was  in  the 
hospital  at  Palaf ox 's  own  home  when  the  city  surrendered. 

4 'And  he  had  any  number  of  hairbreadth  escapes  after 
that,  and  any  amount  of  fighting.  He  was  in  Cadiz  during 
the  second  siege." 

Hawthorne  stopped  and  stared  ahead  of  him  down  the 
slope  of  the  wide,  uneven,  irregular  road-way.  As  well  as 
he  could  see  in  the  short,  quickly  fading  twilight,  it  ended 
in  a  broadish  swamp,  grown  up  with  greenery  like  bam 
boos,  bulrushes  and  sedge. 

"There  is  a  path  through  that,"  Don  Gregorio  assured 
him,  "and  a  log  across  the  brook.  Just  follow  me." 

"When  they  were  clear  of  the  rank  marsh-plants  Don 
Gregorio  turned  on  Hawthorne  a  smile  of  sentimental 
pride. 

"My  godson  is  a  hero  indeed.  He  has  had  experiences. 
I  must  ride  out  to-morrow  to  Itapua  and  hear  more  from 
his  own  lips." 

Hawthorne,  meditating  on  the  contrast  between  Don 
Gregorio 's  courtly  bearing  and  foppish  attire,  and  the 
primitive  squalor  of  the  festering  swamp  and  rough  log 
foot-bridge,  said  nothing. 

Through  the  gathering  dusk  came  the  sounds  of  a  guitar, 
strummed  far  off,  and  of  another  being  tuned  in  a  house 
near  by. 

Suddenly  Hawthorne  realised  he  knew  his  surroundings. 
He  recognised,  even  in  the  moonlight  now  already  stronger 
than  the  fading  twilight,  the  corner  where  he  had  en 
countered  the  octoroon  girl.  Simultaneously  he  looked 
for  and  noticed  a  subtle  change  in  Don  Gregorio 's  manner. 

"Unless  your  road  is  still  mine,"  he  said,  "I  can  find 


78  EL   SUPREMO 

my  way  quite  well  alone  from  here.  I  know  this  street 
already. " 

Don  Gregorio,  however,  insisted  on  accompanying  him 
to  the  very  door  of  Don  Vicente's  abode. 

In  the  patio  of  the  Mayorga  mansion  Hawthorne  found 
all  the  family  assembled,  and  augmented  by  a  score  or 
more  of  guests.  All  were  taking  mate  or  smoking.  All 
rose,  even  the  ladies,  and  Hawthorne  was  presented  to 
more  Dons,  their  wives,  and  the  numerous  sons  and  daugh 
ters.  The  gentlemen,  Hawthorne  noticed,  now  wore,  not 
knee-breeches,  but  long,  loose  white  trousers  like  the  less- 
fashionable  men  of  the  populace  whom  he  had  seen  as  he 
passed  along  the  streets.  The  ladies  wore  the  eternal  and 
eternally  becoming  and  seemly  tupois,  to  which  Hawthorne 
was  already  accustomed. 

Most  of  the  gentlemen  and  nearly  all  the  ladies  acknowl 
edged  the  introduction  in  very  broken  Spanish,  or  out  and 
out  in  Guarani. 

Among  the  few  who  spoke  Castilian,  and  who,  when  all 
were  reseated,  happened  to  be  near  him,  were  a  fat  old 
gentleman,  Don  Baltasar  Figueredo,  and  his  wife,  Dona 
Encarnacion,  a  tall  and  sprightly  young  woman,  evidently 
much  her  husband 's  junior. 

Don  Baltasar  spoke  perfect  Spanish  and  remarked  af 
fably: 

"You  and  I  ought  to  be  good  friends,  Senor  Don  Guil- 
lermo,  for  my  wife  is  almost,  one  might  say,  a  distant 
cousin  of  yours,  as  it  were.  You  cannot  see  in  this  dark 
ness,  but  she  is  a  nibid,  the  only  rubia  in  Asuncion,  and 
has  fair  hair  and  blue  eyes,  like  yourself.  This  makes  us 
almost  cousins,  as  it  were.  I  trust  we  shall  see  you  often 
at  our  house." 

Hawthorne  made  some  inarticulate  attempt  to  acknowl 
edge  the  geniality  of  this  novel  idea,  as  Dona  Encarnacion 
smiled  at  him  over  her  long  cigar,  but  he  was  instantly 
buttonholed  from  the  other  side  by  a  chirpy  little  lady 
with  flashing  black  eyes,  whose  name  he  had  not  caught, 
but  whom  he  afterwards  knew  well  as  Dona  Pancha  Jovel- 
Janos. 

"Senor  Don  Guillerrno,"  she  said,  barely  removing  her 
«igar  from  her  lips,  "I  hear  that  you  came  up  the  river 
tn  the  same  ship  with  Ventura  Velarde.  Is  it  really  true 


BATHING   BY   MOONLIGHT         79 

that  she's  back  in  Asuncion,  unmarried,  after  all  these 
years  ?" 

"Senorita  Velarde  is  certainly,"  Hawthorne  said,  "as 
unmarried  as  when  she  went  away." 

"I  call  that  a  perfect  scandal,"  Sefiora  Jovellanos  com 
mented,  at  large,  with  the  air  of  taking  the  whole  company 
for  audience.  "To  be  twenty-six  years  old  and  unmarried 
is  not  good  Christian  behaviour.  The  girl  ought  to  be 
ashamed  of  herself." 

"Angelica  is  twenlty-five, "  Dona  Encarnacion  inter 
jected  reprovingly. 

"Oh,  well,"  Dona  Pancha  shrilled,  "we  all  know  why 
Angelica  is  not  married  yet.  That  is  altogether  different 
and  does  her  credit.  Kather  than  risk  the  faintest  asper 
sion  of  changeableness  a  woman  ought  to  wait  any  length 
of  time  for  a  man,  even  if  there  has  been  no  formal  engage 
ment  between  the  families,  nor  even  any  definite  under 
standing  between  the  two.  Ventura  wasn't  bound  to  any 
body,  not  by  the  faintest  shadow  of  an  obligation.  She 
always  held  her  head  high  and  never  let  anybody  so  much 
as  look  at  her.  That  was  all  very  well  if  she  was  to  make 
a,  great  match  in  Spain,  which  is  what  everybody  supposed 
was  the  reason  for  her  crossing  the  ocean.  If  she  is  not 
married  by  now  there  must  be  something  the  matter  with 
her.  Has  she  lost  her  good  looks?" 

"She  is  the  most  really  beautiful  woman,"  said  Haw 
thorne  fervently,  "the  only  really  beautiful  woman  I  ever 
saw. ' ' 

' '  That  shows  the  foolishness,  the  imbecility, ' '  Dona  Pan 
cha  cried,  "of  her  father  sending  her  off  travelling,  wan 
dering  up  and  down  the  ocean  and  rambling  about  strange 
countries.  That  sort  of  thing  makes  a  girl  less  attractive 
to  men  instead  of  more  so.  "What  is  the  use  of  travel  and 
learning  if  it  does  not  get  a  girl  a  husband  early  in  life? 
If  she  had  stayed  at  home  she'd  have  been  married  long 
ago.  Such  blasphemous  folly  makes  a  girl  incapable  of 
really  attracting  men. ' ' 

"I  do  not  think  she  is  incapable  of  attracting  men," 
Hawthorne  smiled. 

"If  she  isn't,"  Dona  Pancha  demanded,  "why  hasn't 
she  caught  a  man?  If  she  couldn't  catch  one  in  Spain, 
she  might,  at  least,  be  engaged  to  Beltran  after  four 


8o  EL   SUPREMO 

months  on  the  same  ship  with  him.    Are  they  engaged?" 

"Nothing  could  be  farther  from  her  intentions  or  his," 
Hawthorne  replied,  "as  far  as  I  know  or  could  judge 
from  their  behaviour." 

"The  most  beautiful  woman  you  ever  saw,"  Dona  Pan- 
cha  commented.  ' '  Unmarried  and  unattached,  four  months 
on  the  river  with  the  best  catch  in  Asuncion  and  hasn't 
caught  him.  A  girl  certainly  must  lose  her  womanliness 
travelling,  as  I  have  always  maintained.  Didn't  I  tell 
you  all  Angelica  had  nothing  to  fear  from  Ventura?" 

1 '  It  seems  to  me, ' '  Dofia  Encarnacion  cut  in  across  Haw 
thorne,  ' '  that  you  are  not  very  consistent,  Pancha.  Almost 
in  one  breath  you  praise  Angelica  for  waiting  for  Beltran 
and  decry  Ventura  for  not  catching  him.  How  could  Ven 
tura  catch  Beltran  when  he  was  partly  promised  to  An 
gelica?" 

"I  don't  see  any  inconsistency,"  Dona  Pancha  main 
tained.  "A  girl  is  bound  to  wait  for  her  betrothed.  But 
any  girl  not  betrothed  is  free  to  take  any  man  away  from 
any  woman,  if  she  can.  If  she  does  not,  it  is  because  she 
can't." 

They  continued  to  debate  the  point,  and  the  debate 
spread.  Amid  the  confusion  of  Spanish  and  Guarani  Haw 
thorne  sat  silent. 

Presently  Desiderio  Mayorga  beckoned  him  aside  and 
said : 

"We  are  all  going  to  bathe  in  the  river.  You  had  best 
change  into  a  pair  of  trousers  like  the  rest  of  us.  You 
will  find  a  pair  in  your  room  in  case  you  have  no  linen 
trousers  of  your  own  and  think  they  will  fit  you  well 
enough.  There  is  a  belt  with  them." 

When  Hawthorne  came  out  again  into  the  patio  there 
was  a  chorus  of  voices  in  Guarani  and  in  Spanish,  amid 
which  babel  Hawthorne  could  hear : 

"The  late  Eecaldes!" 

"Late  as  usual!" 

"Next  door  and  come  last!" 

Hawthorne  was  presented  to  Don  Antonio  Recalde,  his 
wife,  Dona  Tules,  and  their  numerous  offspring,  of  whom 
he  chiefly  noticed  a  tall,  graceful  Sefiorita  Angelica  and  an 
equally  tall  and  somewhat  slenderer  Senorita  Concha. 

They  set  forth,  each  lady  accompanied  by  her  maid, 


BATHING    BY    MOONLIGHT         8i! 

carrying  towels  and  a  quantity  of  feminine  garments. 
There  were  valets  for  the  gentlemen,  nearly  as  numerous 
as  the  maids. 

As  they  straggled  out  of  the  courtyard,  all  chattering  at 
once  and  everybody  standing  aside  for  everybody  else, 
Hawthorne  found  himself  walking  with  Concha  Kecalde. 
In  front  of  him  Desiderio  was  with  Angelica  just  behind 
her  parents.  There  was  a  something  in  Desiderio  ?s  atti 
tude  as  he  walked,  in  the  way  he  leaned  towards  Angelica, 
in  the  tones  of  his  voice  as  they  talked  together,  which 
struck  Hawthorne  with  a  thrill  of  recognition  and  com 
prehension.  He  perceived,  what  he  had  already  divined  by 
intuition,  that,  as  among  the  old-fashioned  families  at 
Buenos  Aires  and  universally  at  Santa  Fe  and  Corrientes, 
young  ladies,  closely  guarded  and  unapproachable  at  all 
other  times,  might  be  conversed  with  to  any  extent  at  table 
or  when  walking  abroad  with  their  parents.  He  saw  that 
Desiderio  was  making  the  most  of  his  opportunity.  He, 
himself,  was  awkwardly  groping  for  a  lead  in  conversa 
tion  with  Miss  Concha  when  she  supplied  it  by  saying: 

"Who  was  the  first  person  you  spoke  to  in  Asuncion? 
We  have  a  saying  here  that  one's  luck  in  a  new  city 
depends  on  that." 

"A  Dr.  Parlett "  Hawthorne  began,  when  Miss  Con 
cha  interrupted,  clapping  her  hands. 

"Good  luck!"  she  cried.  "Good  luck  for  you.  Don 
Tomas  is  a  wonderful  man.  Mamma's  nurse,  old  Marta, 
was  dying  of  lockjaw.  Grandmamma  had  all  the  doctors 
in  to  see  her,  one  after  the  other.  Don  Arsenio,  Don  Fruc- 
tuoso,  all  said  the  same  thing,  that  no  one  ever  survived 
pasmo  real,  that  sufferers  always  died.  Then  Grand 
mamma  said  perhaps  the  foreign  doctor  could  help.  I  do 
not  know  what  Don  Tomas  did  to  Marta  or  what  medicine 
he  gave  her;  I  believe  he  will  not  tell,  but  she  recovered 
entirely.  Don  Tomas  is  a  real  wizard." 

They  had  turned  to  the  right  when  they  left  the  house, 
the  Franciscan  Monastery  a  big,  black  mass  under  its 
irregular  roof-outlines,  before  them  with  the  half-moon 
high  above  it.  They  turned  to  the  left  when  they  came 
to  the  earth  bank  bounding  its  enclosure,  and  straggled 
through  crooked  streets,  so  shaded  by  orange  trees  that 
the  moonrays  hardly  struggled  through  here  and  there. 


82  EL   SUPREMO 

Through  the  half  darkness  guitars  sounded  in  all  direc 
tions  from  the  houses  about  them.  Turning  yet  again  to 
the  left,  they  passed  several  low  buildings  till  the  moon  was 
shining  at  them,  over  the  roof  of  the  Cathedral.  Just 
beyond  the  Cathedral  the  way  sloped  down  and  brought 
them  by  an  irregular  broadening  stony  gully  to  the  har 
bour-side,  where  there  was  a  stretch  of  clean  sand  beach 
bordered  by  an  expanse  of  smooth,  weedless  sward  set  with 
a  number  of  trees,  which  by  moonlight  looked  to  Haw 
thorne  like  locust  trees. 

In  the  moonrays  the  spars  of  the  brigs  and  brigantines 
showed  romantically  black  against  the  low  stars.  The 
flanks  of  the  ripples  all  across  the  harbour  shone  with 
dancing  sparkles  of  silver  light.  So  brilliant  was  the  moon 
that  it  was  not  only  possible  to  make  out  the  long  shape 
of  the  wooded  islet  beyond  the  harbour,  but  far  across  the 
broad  river  one  could  descry  the  black  masses  of  the  roll 
ing  hillocks  of  the  Gran  Chaco. 

At  the  water-edge  some  hundred  or  more  people  were 
bathing,  the  gentlemen  a  trifle  up-stream  from  the  ladies. 
Hawthorne  beheld  the  ladies  of  his  party  enter  the  water  as 
they  were  clad,  merely  kicking  off  their  slippers,  which 
the  slave  girls  picked  up. 

The  gentlemen  likewise  kicked  off  their  footgear  for  the 
servants  to  retrieve,  and  then  unconcernedly  pulled  off 
their  shirts  over  their  heads  and  handed  them  to  their 
attendants.  Hawthorne,  by  Desiderio  Mayorga,  did  the 
like,  and  was  soon  splashing  with  the  rest  in  the  water. 
All  talked  at  once,  the  ladies  squealed  and  shrieked  their 
delight,  burst  into  peals  of  laughter  at  the  jokes  the  gentle 
men  shouted  at  them,  shrilled  other  jokes  in  return,  at 
which  the  gentlemen  roared  with  amusement.  It  was  a 
simple-hearted,  primitive,  yet  courtly  kind  of  revelry 
which  Hawthorne  watched  and  shared. 

As  they  were  swimming  about  a  voice  from  among  the 
men  declaimed: 

"0  moon,  supreme  by  yon  most  excellent  star, 
Were  all  supreme,  most  excellent  things  so  far, 
We  should  be  much  more  happy  than  we  are." 

Instantly,  and  in  a  tone  mimicking  his  precisely,  a  sil- 
•very  feminine  voice  sounded  across  the  interval  of  water. 


BATHING    BY    MOONLIGHT         83 

"O  mouth,  unlocked  so  near  our  governed  city, 
If  one  I  shall  not  name  is  told  your  ditty, 
Your  fate  may  rouse  but  will  not  merit  pity." 

That  started  a  cross  fire  of  impromptu  verses  that  ran 
crackling  up  and  down  the  bathing-shore,  now  among  the 
men,  again  among  the  women,  mostly  shuttle-cocking  from 
the  ones  to  the  others.  Hawthorne  was  astonished  at  the 
facility  with  which  they  were  reeled  off ;  amazed  at  their 
wit,  point,  and  perfect  smoothness  of  wording,  and 
astounded  at  the  quickness  with  which  each  sally  was 
capped. 

Salvos  of  laughter  and  applause  greeted  most  of  the 
epigrams.  Hawthorne  joined  in  the  laughter  over  some  of 
the  Spanish  verses,  and  in  all  the  applause,  though  the 
loudest  cheers  were  for  Guarani  witticisms  which  he  could 
not  catch. 

When  they  began  to  leave  the  water,  the  valets  stood  in 
a  sort  of  row  across  the  beach,  forming,  as  it  were,  a 
screen  between  the  gentlemen  and  ladies,  and  skilfully 
proffering  dry  garments. 

When  dressed  the  gentlemen  stood  about  in  groups, 
even  calling  remarks  back  and  forth  to  the  ladies,  who, 
without  any  intervening  row  of  domestics,  were  dexterously 
dry-clad  by  their  maids  by  the  neat  method  of  having  a 
fresh  tupoi  thrown  over  their  heads  and  slipping  off  their 
wet  garment  underneath  it. 

One  of  the  first  gentlemen  dressed  began  playing  a 
guitar.  At  once  everybody  took  up  the  tune  and  the 
dressing  continued  and  was  completed  to  a  succession  of 
chorused  songs. 

Slowly  pacing  homeward  as  they  went,  Hawthorne 
thought  the  ladies  even  more  beautiful  with  their  long 
black  hair  floating  behind  them,  trailing  at  least  to  the 
knees  of  every  one  he  could  see;  and,  from  the  head  of 
Sefiorita  Angelica,  almost  to  the  ground. 

Then  they  sat  about  the  patio  taking  more  mate  and 
smoking  more  cigars.  The  men's  small  cigars  the  servants 
brought  in  boxes.  But  each  of  the  senoras  had  her  slave- 
girl  sitting  by  her,  with  a  lapful  of  moist  tobacco  leaves 
which  she  rolled  into  such  huge  cheroots  as  the  ladies 
preferred,  and  handed  to  her  mistress  as  wanted. 


84  EL   SUPREMO 

The  guitarist  of  the  waterside  was  one  of  the  party  and 
they  had  more  glees  to  his  twangling  accompaniment. 

After  nearly  an  hour  of  talk  and  songs,  they  entered 
the  dining-room  brilliantly  lit  with  many  wax  candles, 
and,  it  seemed  to  Hawthorne,  unendurably  hot.  No  one 
else  seemed  to  mind  the  heat,  though  the  men  undressed 
as  at  the  midday  meal.  They  amazed  him  by  attacking 
vigorously  a  hot  supper,  almost  as  generous  as  the  feast 
set  before  them  for  dinner.  There  was  alia  again,  and 
again  roast  fowls  and  partridges  and  stewed  pigeons. 
Everybody  drank  wine  by  the  gobletful,  everybody  ate 
watermelon  by  the  half  melon  at  once. 

As  at  dinner,  there  were  verses  and  a  storm  of  pelotitas 
till  they  banked  up  in  little  drifts  in  the  corners  against 
the  wall  and  fairly  hid  the  floor. 

Under  cover  of  the  merriment  and  chatter,  Dona  Pancha, 
>rho  sat  next  Hawthorne,  returned  to  the  charge. 

""Will  you  please  explain  to  me,  Senor  Don  Guillermo," 
she  said,  "how  it  is  possible  for  two  healthy,  handsome 
young  folks  like  Beltran  and  Ventura,  both  fancy-free  (for 
I  don't  believe  Beltran  was  ever  in  earnest  about  Angel 
ica),  to  spend  four  months  on  a  ship  together  without  fall 
ing  in  love  ? ' ' 

"I  fancy,"  Hawthorne  said,  "that  you  grandees  of  this 
part  of  the  earth  have  very  little  else  to  occupy  you  be 
sides  matrimony  and  marriage.  Beltran  and  Ventura 
have  seen  a  great  deal  of  the  world  and  of  very  different 
parts  of  the  world.  They  were  certainly  glad  to  encounter 
each  other  at  Buenos  Aires,  each  the  first  compatriot  the 
other  had  seen  for  years.  But  from  the  first  and  certainly 
at  first,  their  heads  were  far  too  full  of  other  interests  to 
leave  any  room  for  gallantry  and  coquetry." 

"Ah,  Senor  Don  Guillermo!"  Dona  Pancha  broke  in  on 
him  archly.  "In  those  words,  'certainly  at  first/  I  scent 
your  ultimate  confirmation  of  all  my  surmises." 

"When  I  come  to  the  end  of  what  I  have  to  say,"  Haw 
thorne  retorted,  "you  will  find  no  corroboration  of  your 
conjecture.  From  the  first  they  talked  of  other  matters, 
and  at  first  of  altogether  different  subjects. 

"To  begin  with,  each  had  had  a  vast  variety  of  novel 
experiences,  many  adventures,  and  not  a  few  trials  and 
dangers.  Neither  had  had  so  far  any  opportunity  to  re« 


BATHING   BY    MOONLIGHT         85 

count  these  happenings  to  sympathetic  ears.  While  their 
paths  had  crossed,  they  had  been  in  the  same  localities  at 
very  different  times.  Everything  either  had 'to  tell  was 
novel  to  the  other.  Beltran 's  adventures  in  Spain,  Por 
tugal,  and  France,  Ventura's  in  those  countries  and  also 
in  England  and  in  my  native  land  were  wonderfully  in 
teresting  in  themselves.  Each  had  been  captured  by  the 
enemy;  Ventura  twice  at  sea  and  Beltran  five  times  on 
shore.  Each  had  been  more  than  once  in  imminent  danger 
of  death.  Beltran 's  narrative,  no  matter  how  modestly 
related,  bristled  with  startling  heroisms. 

''Their  past  was  a  topic  not  soon  talked  out. 

" Their  future  was  equally  absorbing.  Ventura's  domi 
nant  idea  was  to  be  of  use  to  her  father;  that  she  must 
repay  him  all  he  had  done  for  her  by  using  for  his  benefit 
the  talents  his  wisdom  and  generosity  had  developed  in 
her,  must  make  him  glad  of,  never  regretful  for,  the  boun 
tiful  liberality  which  he  had  lavished  on  her. ' ' 

" Bountiful  fiddlesticks!"  Dona  Pancha  interrupted. 
*  *  Her  stepmother  wanted  her  out  of  the  way,  and  wheedled 
the  old  fool  into  thinking  it  was  his  idea  to  imitate  comadre 
Isquibel,  and,  since  he  had  no  son  or  grandson,  send  his 
heiress  to  Europe." 

"At  any  rate,"  Hawthorne  pursued,  "Ventura's  all 
gratitude,  and  bent  on  helping  her  father." 

* '  How  could  she  help  him  1 ' '  Dona  Pancha  demanded. 

"She  says  that  a  full  third  of  his  legitimate  profits  are 
stolen  by  his  overseers,  that  it  is  so  on  all  Paraguayan 
estancias,  that  she  could  soon  introduce  methods  which 
would  put  a  stop  to  all  such  pilferings." 

"Perhaps  she  could,"  Dofia  Pancha  fairly  snorted,  light 
ing  a  fresh  cheroot.  "But  she'd  make  more  trouble  than 
she  cured.  Such  European  ideas  won't  go  down  in  Para 
guay,  and  the  idea  of  a  woman  getting  such  notions!  It 
proves  how  silly  travel  is  for  women." 

"She  is  wrapped  up  in  her  dream,"  Hawthorne  fin 
ished,  "pictures  her  father  longing  for  her  and  counting 
the  days  till  she  comes  home. ' ' 

"Much  he  longs  or  counts,"  Dona  Pancha  sneered. 
"He  never  thought  of  her  except  at  remittance-time  and 
then  reckoned  any  sum  cheap  to  get  her  off  his  mind. 
She'll  find  him  entirely  content  with  his  third  wife.  Fancy 


86  EL   SUPREMO 

a  girl  wasting  her  thoughts  on  her  father  instead  of  mak 
ing  the  most  of  her  youth  and  opportunities." 

' l  She  talked  incessantly  of  her  father, ' '  Hawthorne  said, 
"to  Dona  Juanita  and  to  me  as  well  as  to  Beltran." 

"I'll  wager  they  talked  of  other  matters,  too,"  Dona 
Pancha  sniffed. 

"Belt-ran  talked  a  good  deal  of  his  future,"  Hawthorne 
said.  "He's  as  full  of  a  sense  of  duty  as  Ventura.  Only 
while  she  thinks  of  her  father  only,  he  dreams  uf  putting 
the  fruits  of  his  training  in  the  arts  of  war,  diplomacy  and 
government  at  the  service  of  his  country. ' ' 

All  the  colour  faded  out  of  Dona  Pancha 's  cheeks. 

At  the  instant  the  room  resounded  with  explosions  of 
laughing  and  shouting  over  the  boisterous  amenities  of 
the  battle  with  pelotitas.  One  could  hardly  hear  any  voice 
in  the  babel. 

Yet  Dona  Pancha  sunk  hers  almost  to  a  whisper. 

"For  Heaven's  sake,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  she  im 
plored,  ' '  be  discreet.  If  that  were  repeated  where  it  would 
do  harm,  Beltran  would  be  shot  before  noon  to-morrow." 

"I  did  not  specify  any  particular  kind  of  service  to  his 
country,"  Hawthorne  disclaimed. 

"The  phrase  in  itself  is  enough  and  too  much,"  Dona 
Pancha  admonished  him.  * '  You  have  said  it  twice  now ;  it 
might  have  been  overheard  even  in  this  hurly-burly." 

"Surely  we  are  all  faithful  friends  together!"  Haw 
thorne  exclaimed. 

"Not  surely  at  all,"  she  maintained  vigorously.  "No 
one  trusts  a  large  gathering  at  Asuncion  any  longer.  In 
particular  I  don't  trust  Venancio.  The  Lopez  blood  is  bad 
blood.  He  has  gambling  debts  off  and  on  and  is  always  in 
need  of  money.  Talk  of  something  safer." 

"You  can  see,  at  least,"  Hawthorne  persisted,  edging 
away  from  the  forbidden  ground,  but  not  changing  the 
subject,  "that  two  young  folks  occupied  with  reminis 
cences,  canvassing  of  cherished  purposes  and  philosophical 
discussions,  are  far  from  making  love." 

"I  can  see  nothing  of  the  kind,"  Dona  Pancha  main 
tained  emphatically,  "and  you  would  see  exactly  the  re 
verse  if  you  had  sense.  Talking  philosophy,  plans  and  rec 
ollections  is  all  love-making  when  young  folks  talk  to 
gether." 


DON    BERNARDO   VELASCO         87 

"If  it  was,"  Hawthorne  asseverated,  "neither  Ventura 
nor  Beltran  knew  it." 

' '  That 's  the  worst  kind  of  love-making, ' '  the  bright-eyed 
little  lady  summed  up,  "when  neither  knows  of  it.  And 
I'll  wager  they  talked  of  love,  too,  when  you  were  not  in 
hearing. ' ' 

"Sometimes  when  I  was  in  hearing,"  Hawthorne  ad" 
mitted.  "But  there  is  the  greatest  difference  between  talk 
ing  of  love  and  talking  love." 

"Not  so  much  as  you  imagine,"  she  rejoined. 

1 '  You  would  have  said  they  were  far  from  being  lovers, ' ' 
Hawthorne  insisted,  "if  you  had  seen  them  on  the  deck, 
say  over  a  game  of  chess. ' ' 

"Chess!"  Dona  Pancha  exclaimed.  "That  old  man's 
game !  That  game  for  priests  and  jurists !  Faugh !  How 
unwomanly  travel  makes  a  girl ! ' ' 

At  this  moment  there  was  a  cry  for  silence.  The  guitar 
ist,  the  amazingly  handsome  Don  Venancio  Lopez,  whom 
Dona  Jovellanos  had  disparaged,  began  an  air.  He  had  an 
infectious  gaiety  and  played  in  a  very  catchy  manner.  In 
a  moment  he  had  them  all  singing  in  chorus.  When  he 
broke  one  string  he  retuned  the  remainder  and  managed  to 
elicit  melodies  quite  as  effective  as  before. 

It  was  near  midnight  when  the  party  broke  up. 

In  Hawthorne's  dreams  Don  Gregorio  led  him  amid  in-- 
finite  wildernesses  of  bamboos,  through  contracted  paths, 
where  the  foliage  brushed  their  faces,  along  narrow  log 
bridges  over  countless  brooks.  Always  he  saw  the  perfect 
fitting  drab  shoulders  of  his  guide  pushing  aside  the  green- 
ery  just  ahead  of  him,  the  silver  tip  of  his  long  rapier- 
scabbard  tapping  along  the  bark  of  the  interminable  logs 
of  his  night-mares. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

DON   BERNARDO   VELASCO 

NEXT  morning  Hawthorne  was  wakened  early  by  a  tap 
on  his  door. 

Don  Vicente  entered  without  his  sword,  but  otherwise 
fully  dressed. 


88  EL   SUPREMO 

' '  I  grieve  to  disturb  you,  Senor  Don  Guillermo, ' '  he  said, 
"but  you  have  a  visitor." 

"  I ! "  Hawthorne  exclaimed,  astonished. 

"Do  not  be  alarmed,"  Mayorga  said.  "It  is  not  one  of 
the  emissaries  of  our  Dictator.  Your  early  caller  is  our 
ex- Governor,  who  is  such  an  early  riser  himself  that  he 
can  hardly  realize  that  any  one  is  ever  abed  after  dawn. 
We  shall  have  him  to  breakfast,  of  course,  and  then  we 
three  can  talk  in  my  library." 

The  ex-Intendente  Hawthorne  found  in  the  patio,  walk 
ing  up  and  down  under  the  arcade.  He  was  a  tall,  spare, 
fragile-looking  old  man,  whose  military  bearing1  and  life 
long  erect  carriage  were  now  manifestly  yielding  to  the 
approach  of  infirmities  not  yet  upon  him.  He  had  a  barely 
perceptible  stoop,  was  just  a  trifle  bent,  and  tottered  ever  so 
little  as  he  walked,  his  head,  whenever  he  spoke,  giving  the 
faintest  suggestion  of  the  palsied  nodding  of  the  very  old. 
He  wore  a  silver-hilted  court-rapier,  in  a  black-leather 
sheath,  silver-tipped.  From  head  to  foot  he  was  in  black, 
except  for  a  mere  rim  of  white-lace  ruffle  at  his  wrists  and 
neck,  and  a  small  white-lace  cravat  over  his  shirt-frill. 
Threadbare  and  darned  his  garments  were,  but  scrupu 
lously  clean,  evidently  brushed  with  loving  care  and  worn 
with  simple  dignity.  In  his  hand  he  held  a  black  cocked 
hat  much  faded.  His  hair  was  thin  and  straggled  in  sil 
very  waves  about  his  temples.  Wrinkled  and  yellowed  as 
his  face  was,  it  had  a  pinkish  tinge  of  elderly  health;  over 
his  aquiline  nose  peered  eyes,  red-rimmed  but  not  bleared, 
rather  bright  and  twinkling;  and  although  his  mouth  was 
never  quite  closed,  there  was  no  hint  of  senility  about  the 
thin  lips.  From  his  every  attitude  one  inferred  kindly 
instincts,  his  expression  was  a  smile  of  good-will  to  all  the 
world.  He  was  the  incarnation  of  genteel  poverty,  and 
courtly  benignity.  Hawthorne  felt  at  first  glance  that  he 
was  above  all  a  lovable  old  man. 

"Don  Bernardo,"  their  host  said,  as  soon  as  the  intro 
ductions,  compliments,  and  snuff-takings  were  over,  "will 
tell  you  after  breakfast  why  he  has  come." 

Breakfast  was  merely  chipti  bread,  fruit,  milk  and  mate. 
There  was  cfcocoiafe  also,  but  it  appeared  to  have  been 
served  chiefly  for  Hawthorne,  who  relished  it,  and  for  Don 
Bernardo,  who  enjoyed  it  manifestly,  even  pathetically. 


DON    BERNARDO    VELASCO          89 

Over  it  he  queried : 

"Do  you  ever  shoot  partridges  in  your  country,  Don 
Guillermo?" 

"Sometimes,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "at  the  season  when 
they  are  abundant." 

* '  In  Paraguay, ' '  the  old  man  declared,  ' t  there  is  no  sea 
son  at  which  they  are  not  abundant.  I  should  be  charmed 
to  have  you  go  shooting  with  me  the  first  morning  you  can 
arrange  for." 

"I  have  no  fowling-piece,"  Hawthorne  demurred. 

"Never  mind,"  Don  Bernardo  beamed,  "I  have  two,  or 
I  can  borrow  Jenofonte's  for  you,  if  mine  do  not  suit  you." 

"I  am  sure  they  would  suit  me,"  Hawthorne  bowed. 

"Lack  of  a  gun  need  never  be  an  obstacle  to  going  shoot 
ing  near  Asuncion. ' '  the  old  man  went  on.  * '  That  is,  if  you 
would  really  enjoy  partridge  shooting." 

"I  am  sure  I  should  enjoy  it  greatly,"  Hawthorne  assev 
erated. 

The  old  Intend ente  's  face  lit  up  still  brighter. 

"Ah,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "it  is  a  pity  that 
anything  keeps  any  one  indoors  a  morning  like  this!  A 
good  fowling-piece,  a  good  Malvinas  pointer,  a  good  friend 
to  share  the  joys  of  sport  and  the  open  country,  wind  and 
sunshine,  that's  really  living!" 

After  breakfast,  which  was  soon  done  with,  their  host 
led  the  way  to  the  same  room,  where  he  and  Hawthorne  had 
talked  on  the  previous  morning. 

Hawthorne  having  heard  it  called  a  library,  looked  about 
for  justification  of  the  title.  Besides  red-backed  account- 
books  he  saw  none  except  two  folios,  one  de  Mariana 's  His 
tory  of  Spain,  the  other  las  Casas*  History  of  the  Indies,  a 
quarto  Don  Quixote,  a  Spanish  translation  of  Buchan's 
Domestic  Medicine,  and  one  small  volume  which  he  after 
wards  found  was  the  adventures  of-Lazarillo  de  Tormes. 

These  were  in  the  upper-section  of  the  desk-cabinet,  much, 
like  Dr.  Bargas'  bufete,  but  simpler  and  less  ornate. 

Don  Bernardo  declined  a  cigar,  and  Hawthorne,  though 
he  took  one,  let  it  go  out  at  once. 

For  the  old  man,  in  a  sort  of  flutter  of  solicitude,  began 
as  soon  as  they  were  seated. 

' '  I  beg  of  you  not  to  consider  my  visit  an  intrusion,  Senor 
Don  Guillermo." 


90  EL   SUPREMO 

Hawthorne  disclaimed  any  such  feeling,  and  he  went  on : 

' '  Lisardo  came  to  me  by  moonlight  last  night  and  told  me 
of  your  astounding  purposes  in  coming  to  Asuncion.  I 
questioned  him  as  to  what  had  passed  at  the  wine-shop.  I 
said  to  myself  : 

"  'This  rash  or  inspired  lad  must  to-morrow  at  nine 
o'clock  visit  the  most  redoubtable  man  alive.  At  best,  he 
can  be  but  poorly  equipped  for  such  an  encounter.  He 
should  have  every  possible  advantage  in  a  strait  where  the 
slightest  error  of  word,  tone  or  look  may  arouse  his  adver 
sary  to  a  capricious  fury  which  may  be  the  stranger's  ruin. 
If  Vicente  has  done  no  better  than  Jenofonte  and  his 
cronies,  the  lad  knows  worse  than  nothing  of  his  antagonist. 
He  should,  at  least,  be  in  possession  of  a  full  comprehension 
of  the  man  against  whom  he  pits  himself. ' 

"With  this  in  mind,  I  came  here  early,  routed  my  good 
Vicente  out  of  a  luxurious  bed  and  questioned  him.  It 
seems  to  me  that  all  that  has  been  told  you  of  the  man  is 
far  more  likely  to  bewilder  you  than  to  aid  you.  I  have 
come  to  try  to  help  you,  if  my  intention  pleases  you.  If 
it  does  not  please  you,  we  may  talk  of  other  matters,  or  I 
shall  withdraw,  as  you  prefer. ' ' 

"Your  kindness  overwhelms  me,  Seiior  Don  Bernardo/ ' 
Hawthorne  said,  "and  I  beg  you  to  remain.  I  seem  to 
have  not  a  confused  but  a  very  definite  and  consistent  idea 
of  the  man's  complicated  individuality  and  contradictory 
traits.  But  I  have  gained  no  inkling  of  how  he  won  the 
popularity  that  has  made  him  absolute.  That  is  what  I 
want  to  know:  the  basis  of  his  power,  the  method  of  its 
acquisition." 

"That,"  said  Bernardo,  "I  may  make  clear  if  you  will 
bear  with  an  old  man 's  diffuseness  and  verbosity. ' ' 

He  put  his  head  on  one  side,  stared  at  vacancy  over 
Hawthorne 's  shoulder,  and  began : 

' '  "When  I  was  promoted  from  being  governor  of  Missiones 
to  be  Intendente  of  Paraguay,  I  found  Asuncion  much  un- 
.settled  by  Don  Lazaro  Espinosa's  vagaries  and  ferocities. 
The  discontent  of  the  Creoles  needed  an  effective  sedative. 
I  judged  the  appointment  of  popular  and  trusted  men  to 
the  Cabildo  the  best  means  of  conciliation.  While  consid 
ering  candidates,  I  was  much  impressed  by  a  young  advo- 


DON    BERNARDO   VELASCO         91 

Don  Bernardo's  voice  sank.  He  looked  around.  He 
continued,  almost  in  a  whisper: 

"Doctor  Jose  Gaspar  Rodriguez  de  Francia." 

He  drew  a  deep  breath  and  sighed  profoundly. 

*'I  was  very  much  taken  with  the  young  man's  appear 
ance,  behaviour  and  personality.  I  was  impressed  by  the 
current  gossip  concerning  his  erudition,  astuteness,  recti 
tude  and  frugality.  My  interest  was  aroused  by  the  mys 
tery  that  hung  about  him,  the  atmosphere  of  reticent  se- 
cretiveness  which  enveloped  him.  Even  in  those  days,  he 
inspired  among  the  natives  an  implicit  confidence  and  awe 
struck  reverence  amounting  to  superstitious  adoration  and 
already  showing  signs  of  the  positive  idolatry  into  which  it 
has  since  developed.  But  most  of  all  was  I  struck  with  his 
seemingly  inherent  faculty  for  evoking  vehement  partisan 
ship  in  every  human  being — Indian,  Mulatto,  Guarani,  Cre 
ole  or  Spanish — who  knew  him  or  knew  of  him.  No  one 
was  lukewarm  towards  him,  no  one  indifferent.  Not  one 
calm,  impartial,  apparently  unbiased  account  of  him  did  I 
hear.  He  aroused  enthusiastic  admiration  or  infuriated 
enmity.  He  was  either  lauded  or  vilified.  In  particular, 
a  majority  of  the  better  class  of  our  citizens  seemed  to  me 
so  completely  envenomed  against  him  that  even  uncon 
sciously  they  were  uniformly  his  traducers. 

"I  made  special  enquiries  concerning  his  origin  and  ante 
cedents. 

"In  the  process  of  these  investigations  I  perceived  that 
many  of  the  reports  from  my  official  secret  agents  were 
coloured  by  the  same  peculiar  tendency  I  had  noticed  in 
general  conversation :  I  detected  a  manifest  pr oneness  Co 
wards  blackening  his  character  even  by  the  recital  of  im 
probabilities,  fantastic  innuendoes  or  downright  fabrica 
tions.  The  chief  of  these  concerned  his  name,  his  ^  age,  the 
years  he  had  spent  away  from  Asuncion,  and  his  moral 
character. 

"I  found  that  his  father,  the  son  of  a  Frenchman  who 
had  emigrated  to  Brazil,  had  been  imported  by  Don  Mar 
cos  Larrazabal  to  superintend  his  experimental  plantations 
for  the  introduction  of  Brazilian  black  tobacco.  His  broth 
ers,  whom  he  brought  with  him  as  overseers,  called  them 
selves  simply  Rodriguez,  whereas  he  always  used  the  name 
of  Garcia  Rodriguez  de  Franca,  as  he  spelled  it  when  he 


92  EL   SUPREMO 

settled  at  Yaguaron,  where  the  biggest  of  Larraza- 
bal's  plantations  was  located.  But  after  he  married 
Petrona  Caballero,  in  fact,  in  his  signature  to  the 
marriage  papers,  he  dropped  the  'de'  and  spelled  it 
Francia. 

"He  and  Petrona  had  a  numerous  progeny,  fully  a 
dozen  boys  and  a  half-dozen  girls,  of  whom  the  most  grew 

Tip. 

"In  1785,  under  Don  Joaquin  de  Aloz,  through  the  influ 
ence  of  Bishop  Juan  Jose  de  Priego  y  Caro,  they  had  the 
opportunity  to  send  one  of  their  sons  to  the  University  of 
Cordova  de  Tucuman.  Now  it  was  represented  to  me  that 
their  son  Jose  Gaspar,  who  was  then  over  twenty-two  and 
unmarried,  was  little  better  than  a  dolt,  while  their  much 
younger  son  Pedro  was  the  cleverest  of  their  large  family ; 
that  they  effected  an  interchange,  easily  inducing  the  clever 
Pedro  to  pass  himself  off  as  Jose  Gaspar  and  compelling 
the  simpleton  Jose  Gaspar  to  submit  to  the  exchange  of 
names;  that  the  real  Jose  Gaspar,  the  only  son  entitled  by 
his  age  to  an  education  at  Cordova,  was  relegated  as  Pedro 
to  the  tobacco  fields  and  the  real  Pedro  sent  off  as  Jose 
Gaspar  to  the  university.  I  myself  cannot  conceive  how  the 
sons  of  so  well-known  a  personage  as  the  general  superin 
tendent  of  government  tobacco  plantations,  after  the 
younger  man  was  rising  fifteen,  could  be  secretly  inter 
changed,  with  no  outcry  among  the  hundreds  who  must 
have  known  both,  without  detection,  betrayal  and  exposure, 
without  even  a  complaint,  protest  or  suspicion.  Nor  can  I 
conceive  how  a  mere  child  of  fourteen  could  pass  himself 
off  anywhere,  least  of  all  before  the  cool  and  experienced 
authorities  and  professors  of  one  of  the  five  great  universi 
ties  of  the  continent,  as  a  youth  of  twenty-two,  let  alone  as 
a  man  of  twenty-eight,  for  some  absurdly  rumour  that  the 
genuine  Jose  Gaspar  was  twenty-eight  at  the  time  of  the 
alleged  exchange.  However  that  may  be,  there  is  to  this 
day  the  greatest  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  this  man's  true 
age,  the  divergences  in  the  estimates  amounting  to  fully 
fourteen  years.  When  I  first  saw  him  his  litheness  and 
physical  vigour,  combined  with  his  ascetic  and  sedentary 
habits  and  his  appearance  of  erudition  and  gravity,  made  it 
impossible  to  form  a  fixed  opinion.  I  could  not  feel  that  I 
was  making  a  well-founded  conjecture  at  any  age  between 


DON    BERNARDO   VELASCO          93 

thirty-two  and  forty-six,  the  extremes  maintained  by  hig 
champions  and  detractors. 

"All  accounts  agreed  that  he  had  been  expected  to  be 
come  a  priest  and  had  gone  to  Cordova  intending  to  study 
theology,  that  he  had  devoted  himself  for  some  years  to 
reading  in  divinity,  that  he  became  alienated  from  interest 
in  religion  and  applied  himself  to  law. 

"Otherwise  the  reports  were  greatly  at  variance;  that  he 
had  received  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  in  due  course; 
that  he  had  been  expelled  from  the  university  for  blasphe 
mous  conversation  and  disorderly  life;  that  he  had  gone 
straight  from  Asuncion  to  Cordova  and  returned  as  di 
rectly  ;  that  he  had  spent  most  of  his  absence  in  travel,  and 
visited  Chuquisaca  and  studied  at  the  university  there,  had 
crossed  the  Andes  and  been  a  student  at  the  universities 
both  of  Cuzco  and  Lima,  had  sojourned  at  Buenos  Aires; 
even  that  he  had  passed  the  ocean  to  Spain  and  spent  a  full 
year  as  a  student  at  Salamanca.  I  could  verify  none  of 
these  conflicting  rumours  nor  find  any  basis  for  the 
wilder. 

"Certainly,  when  I  came  here  as  governor  he  had  been 
established  for  more  than  ten  years  at  Asuncion  as  a  jurist 
and  pleader,  had  been  treated  as  a  licentiate  and  accorded 
all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  a  doctor  of  laws. 

* '  It  was  stated  to  me  that  he  had  been  very  dissolute.  I 
could  descry  no  confirmation  of  this  calumny  in  his  ap 
pearance  or  behaviour.  He  was  said  to  have  been  an  ad 
mirer  of  this  or  that  among  our  peinetas  de  oro,  but  I  could 
not  find  any  one  who  would  affirm  having  seen  him  with 
one,  either  at  her  house  or  at  a  fiesta.  No  scandal,  I  found, 
connected  his  name  with  the  disturbance  of  the  domesticity 
of  any  respectable  husband  or  father.  The  sole  ground  for 
these  detractions  appeared  to  be  that  he  had  offended  the 
matchmakers  of  the  capital  and  laid  himself  open  to  the 
slanders  of  busybodies  by  his  morose,  his  almost  surly,  iso 
lation  since  his  one  unfortunate  love  affair.  He  was  un 
doubtedly  ardently  in  love  with  Petrona  Zevallos,  and 
cruelly  disappointed  when  she  jilted  him  for  Cayetano 
Machain. 

* '  Our  good  Vicente  informs  me  that  he  recited  to  you  the 
story  of  his  father's  death.  But  he  did  not  know  the  cause 
of  the  estrangement  between  father  and  son.  It  seems  that 


94  EL   SUPREMO 

Captain  Garcia  Francia,  having  been  at  some  small  expense 
in  fitting  out  his  boy  for  the  university,  although  his  main 
tenance  there  had  cost  him  nothing,  expected  his  scholar  son 
to  be  a  lavish  provider  for  all  the  family  and  all  their  wants 
and  whims.  The  elder  man  seems  not  only  to  have  had  that 
attitude  of  mind  towards  position  and  opportunity  which 
is  the  curse  of  all  South  America,  not  only  to  have  held 
tenaciously  to  that  conception  of  public  service  which  is 
the  disgrace  of  our  Spanish  colonies,  but  to  have  been  par 
ticularly  gross  and  blatant  in  his  open  expression  of  his 
views.  This  may  have  been  natural  to  him,  for  he  was  not 
merely  a  Brazilian,  but  from  the  province  and  the  very  city 
of  Rio  de  Janeiro ;  and  this  low  moral  spirit  is,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  imputed  to  Brasileros  in  general,  to  Cariocas  es 
pecially,  and  to  Fluminenses  in  particular.  To  him  it  was 
an  axiom  that  a  family  pinched  itself  to  make  one  member 
a  public  man  in  order  that  he  might  enrich  himself  by 
extortion,  bribe-taking  and  sharp  practices  and  pour  the 
profits  of  his  chicanery  out  upon  his  relations. 

"When  his  son  devoted  himself,  from  his  first  return  to 
Asuncion,  to  championing  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  the  op 
pressed,  the  unfortunate,  his  father  flew  into  rages  with 
him  for  his  folly,  his  waste  of  time,  his  idiotic  pursuit  of 
profitless  benevolence.  When  he  saw  him  refuse  handsome 
retainers  from  opulent  rascals  in  cases  likely  to  be  end 
lessly  lucrative,  his  fury  knew  no  bounds.  When  his  re- 
,  monstrances  were  of  no  effect  and  his  reproaches  met  no 
response  except  frigid  contempt,  he  was  beside  himself. 
Father  and  son  were  completely  estranged.  Yet  the  su 
perintendent  fatuously  clung  to  the  conviction  that  his  son 
must  yield  to  his  adjurations  and  come  to  what  he  regarded 
as  his  manifest  duty;  continued  to  expect  from  month  tft 
month  that  the  young  jurist  would  inevitably  take  to  the 
very  practices  he  so  abhorred,  and  become  a  source  of  un 
bounded  affluence  to  himself  and  all  his  relations.  For 
this  ever-anticipated  outcome  he  regarded  it  as  indispen 
sable  that  he  should  remain  unmarried. 

"With  this  ridiculous  hope  ever  before  his  eyes,  he 
viewed  with  consternation  his  son's  successful  suit  of  Pe- 
trona  Zevallos  and  her  brothers'  approbation.  He  con 
ceived  the  perverted  notion  that  his  infatuation  with  Pe- 
trona  was  the  sole  obstacle  to  his  becoming  all  he  desired; 


DON    BERNARDO   VELASCO         95 

that  he  had  but  to  make  a  marriage  with  her  impossible  to 
have  Gaspar  precisely  what  he  wished. 

"With  this  demented  aim,  taking  advantage  of  the  fact 
that  Petrona  was  at  the  same  time  assiduously  though  hope 
lessly  courted  by  Cayetano  Machain,  a  distant  cousin  of 
his  wife's  family,  the  Caballeros,  he  vilely  slandered  his 
own  son  to  Valeriano  and  Segundo  Zevallos,  who  could  not 
suspect  the  libel,  coming  from  the  suitor's  father.  In  their 
indignation  they  told  the  tale  to  their  sister,  who,  revolted 
at  her  lover's  baseness,  in  the  first  blaze  of  her  resentment 
married  Cayetano  Machain. 

"It  was  this  baseless  slander  of  himself,  this  deception 
of  the  Zevallos  brothers,  this  entrapping  of  Petrona  into  a 
loveless  marriage,  which  embittered  the  son  permanently 
and  unalterably  against  his  father,  more  or  less  against 
mankind,  and  certainly  against  all  religion.  From  that 
time  he  never  entered  a  church,  and  when,  after  he  had 
spurned  the  ministrations  of  his  pastor,  Bishop  Priego  y 
Caro  himself  remonstrated  with  him,  he  said,  blasphe 
mously,  that  God  either  permitted  such  things  to  happen  or 
was  incapable  of  preventing  them ;  that  if  he  was  impotent 
he  was  contemptible,  while  if  he  was  indifferent  he  was 
wicked ;  that  he  would  not  bow  the  knee  to  a  wicked  or 
contemptible  God.  Bishop  Priego  was  too  kind-hearted  to 
report  his  blasphemy  to  the  Holy  Office,  and  enjoined  si 
lence  upon  Padre  Lisardo  Bogarin,  who  had  accompanied 
him  upon  his  mission  of  mercy.  The  good  Bishop  hoped 
that  his  prayers  and  those  of  his  clergy  might  work  a 
change  of  heart  in  the  rash  lad.  So  he  escaped  the  Inqui 
sition. 

4 'He  became  a  sort  of  recluse  at  his  country-house  at 
Ibirai,  but  continued  to  be  the  comforter,  counsellor  and 
champion  of  orphans,  widows,  labourers,  and  especially  of 
our  timid  and  slow-minded  convert  villagers,  our  Tape 
Indians  of  the  reductions,  who  are  very  timorous  in  all 
matters  relating  to  law,  dreading  suits  as  incomprehensible, 
and  courts  as  mere  ante-chambers  to  the  prisons.  He  was 
much  sought  also  by  persons  able  to  pay  liberally,  but  was 
reported  never  to  neglect  a  poor  client  for  a  richer.  He 
likewise  had  the  reputation  of  never  undertaking  a  case 
unless  assured  of  its  justice,  and  of  never  losing  a  case  he 
undertook.  He  certainly  prospered  and  became  a  man  of 


96  EL   SUPREMO 

property,  purchasing  his  cottage  at  Ibirai  from  his  former 
landlord,  adding  to  its  garden  several  adjoining  bits  of 
land,  and  buying  a  modest  dwelling  in  the  city.  He  lived 
in  a  very  parsimonious  way,  with  the  simplest  food,  cloth 
ing  and  furniture,  immersed  in  his  studies  when  not  ac 
tually  busied  over  the  affairs  of  his  clients. 

1  'Of  course,  I  appointed  him-  to  the  Council,  where  his 
integrity  and  ability  won  him  a  prominent  position  among 
his  colleagues. 

"It  was  during  his  first  year  in  the  Cabildo  that  there 
occurred  an  incident  altogether  characteristic. 

"He  had  a  cousin  named  Domingo  Rodriguez,  a  rich 
man  and  very  litigious  in  disposition.  As  soon  as  the  pres 
ent  dictator  returned  to  Asuncion  from  the  University  of 
Cordova,  Don  Domingo  retained  him  as  his  lawyer,  and 
had  him  manage  his  frequent  suits.  After  this  relation  of 
attorney  and  employer  had  subsisted  for  fully  nine  years, 
the  present  Dictator  became  restive  concerning  a  suit  over 
some  pieces  of  land.  On  examining  the  papers,  he  found 
that  the  suit  was  a  most  ingenious  and  promising  plot  for 
1111  just1  y  gaining  possession  of  the  entire  estate  of  Estan- 
islc  ichain  of  Lambare,  brother  of  the  Cayetano  Machain 
whom  Petrona  Zevallos  had  married.  He  at  once  returned 
the  papers  to  Rodriguez  and  declined  to  have  anything 
more  to  do  with  the  suit.  Domingo  retained  another  less 
scrupulous  lawyer,  and  won  the  preliminary  action  of  the 
suit  with  ease  against  Estanislao,  who  managed  his  own 
case. 

"When  the  news  of  this  reached  the  man  of  whom  we 
are  talking,  he  at  once  rode  to  Lambare  to  the  Machain 
chacara.  As  the  farmstead  was  isolated  and  as  every  horse 
man  in  Paraguay  wears  his  sabre,  Estanislao 's  servant 
thought  the  visitor  had  come  to  kill  his  master,  knowing 
them  to  be  enemies  since  Cayetano 's  marriage.  The  visitor 
reassured  him  gruffly,  but  nevertheless  he  warned  his  mas 
ter.  Estanislao  put  himself  in  a  position  for  defence  and 
would  not  believe  his  ears  when  he  heard  what  his  visitor 
had  to  say.  He  told  him  briefly  that  he  would  not  remain 
inert  and  see  any  man  robbed,  that  the  case  was  sure  to  go 
against  him  all  through  if  he  persisted  in  trying  to  manage 
it  for  himself,  whereas  he  could  win  for  him  to  a  cer 
tainty. 


DON    BERNARDO   VELASCO         97 

"With  some  reluctance  Estanislao  put  tlie  case  in  his 
hands. 

"When  the  juez  de  alzada,  the  appeal-court  judge,  read 
the  papers  he  had  prepared,  he  at  once  told  Domingo's  law 
yer  that  it  was  impossible,  if  the  case  was  pushed  thus, 
for  him  to  avoid  finding  for  Estanislao.  Domingo  at  once 
procured  a  large  bag  of  doubloons  and  rode  out  to  Ibirai. 

"Hearing  his  visitor  without  interruption  until  he  had 
eaid  all  he  had  to  say  and  displayed  the  gold,  he  stood  up, 
exclaiming : 

'  i  l  Get  out  of  my  house  with  your  dirty  insinuations  and 
your  dirty  money  I' 

"After  that,  he  pressed  the  case  with  vigour  and  Ma- 
chain  retains  his  patrimony. 

"I  could  recount  of  him  many  such  anecdotes  of  ex 
ploits  which  cumulatively  contributed  to  his  reputation  for 
disinterestedness,  which  spread  among  the  common  people 
until  they  looked  up  to  him  as  a  demigod.  To  this  semi- 
deification  his  renown  for  erudition  vastly  conduced.  He 
was  actually,  beyond  peradventure,  the  most  learned  man 
not  only  in  Paraguay,  but  in  the  entire  Vice-royalty  of 
Buenos  Aires.  No  Spaniard,  no  Creole  even,  was  so  com 
pletely  a  master  of  the  niceties  of  Guarani  rhetoric;  and 
their  eloquence  is  no  mean  art,  for  among  Guaranies  not 
custom,  tradition,  law  or  rule  determines  collective  action, 
but  the  persuasiveness  of  the  speakers  who  address  their 
meetings.  In  ease,  accuracy  and  subtlety  of  expression  in 
Spanish,  whether  written  or  spoken,  he  was  without  a  peer. 
All  our  ecclesiastics  read  Latin,  but  not  one  is  so  com 
pletely  at  home  in  its  entire  literature.  Two  or  three  per 
haps  read  a  little  Greek ;  to  him  Greek  is  as  well  known  as 
Latin,  and  its  writers  his  familiars.  Some  of  us  speak  and 
read  French;  none  with  the  completeness  to  which  he  has 
attained.  Portuguese,  which  not  many  of  us  speak,  he 
knows  thoroughly.  I  believe  he  is  the  solitary  Creole  in 
the  Vice-royalty  who  has  any  knowledge  of  Italian,  Ger 
man  and  English,  all  of  which  he  reads  without  difficulty. 

"His  attainments  in  the  natural  sciences  are  equally 
marvellous.  His  knowledge  of  medicine  is  by  no  means 
contemptible;  he  is  the  most  competent  land-surveyor  in 
Paraguay,  and  a  capable  architect.  Vicente  has  told  you 
01  his  addiction  to  mathematics  and  astronomy.  He  had 


98  EL   SUPREMO 

gathered  a  library  not  only  surpassing  any  in  the  Vice- 
royalty,  but  I  venture  to  hazard  that  if  every  book  in  ex 
istence  in  the  whole  region  had  been  conveyed  to  Asuncion, 
his  would  have  outnumbered  all  the  rest.  The  peasantry, 
accustomed  to  no  book  save  their  pastor's  breviary,  re 
garded  this  wall-full  of  tomes,  a  modest  collection  by  Eu 
ropean  standards,  as  a  vast  garner  of  supernatural  lore,  an 
arsenal  of  wizardry. 

"  Among  the  primitive  Guarani  heathens  an  eclipse  was 
called  Yagua,  meaning  dog  in  their  tongue,  from  their 
fable  that  a  great  dog  roamed  about  among  the  stars  and 
now  and  again  tried  to  swallow  the  sun  or  moon. 

"He  made  a  practice,  after  each  eclipse,  of  announcing 
that  there  would  be  none  again  until  a  specified  date ;  that 
on  such  and  such  a  night  the  moon  would  be  eclipsed,  or  on 
such  and  such  a  day,  the  sun.  These  predictions,  always 
fulfilled,  augmented  his  renown.  He  was  spoken  of  among 
the  Indians  as  Yecoti  Yagua,  which  means  in  their  lan 
guage  '  the  friend  of  the  dog. '  The  more  ignorant  believed 
that  he  could  and  did  cause  and  prevent  eclipses  at  will. 
The  populace  addressed  him  as  'Carai,'  a  word  meaning 
*  Lord '  in  Guarani,  and  applied  formerly  to  the  sorcerers  of 
their  ancestral  paganism. 

* '  It  was  inevitable  that  the  man  most  looked  up  to  by  all 
classes  of  the  population,  who  surpassed  all  our  best  in  all 
kinds  of  learning,  should  be  thought  of  for  secretary  of 
the  provisional  junta  which  took  charge  of  the  government 
after  the  Corsican's  abasement  of  Spain  had  sapped  loy 
alty  to  our  king,  after  the  revolt  of  Buenos  Aires  had  cut 
us  off  from  communication  with  our  mother-country ;  after 
the  defeat  of  the  Porteiio  inroad  had  given  Paraguay  a 
sense  of  national  existence  and  self-reliance;  after  associ 
ation  and  conversation  with  Belgrano  and  his  officers  had 
scattered  the  seeds  of  republican  ideas  in  Asuncion. 

'  *  There  was  some  faint  opposition,  a  quickly  evaporating 
proposal  of  another  candidate ;  but  all  very  evanescent. 

"The  Generals  all  agreed  he  was  the  man  for  secretary 
even  before  they  had  decided  which  of  themselves  should  be 
president  of  the  board.  They  were  on  the  point  of  sending 
for  him  when  Don  Prudencio  la  Guardia  interposed  and 
staggered  them  all  by  drily  enquiring  whether  any  one 
knew  his  political  convictions  or  preferences. 


DON    BERNARDO   VELASCO         99 

' '  Not  one  of  them  did. 

''Such  had  been  the  reticence  and  secretiveness  of  the 
man  that  not  only  Atanacio  Cabanas,  who  had  been  his 
client,  and  Valeriano  Zevallos,  who  had  just  missed  being 
his  brother-in-law,  but  even  Jerman  Caballero,  his  cousin, 
knew  nothing  of  his  sentiments.  He  might  be  an  ardent 
loyalist  or  an  advocate  of  union  with  Buenos  Aires,  for  all 
they  knew.  They  looked  at  each  other  with  comical  em 
barrassment.  Even  in  my  chagrin  I  almost  laughed  at 
them.  It  was  not  until  Padre  Melquiades  Caballero,  his 
uncle,  declared  he  could  vouch  for  his  nephew's  patriotism, 
for  his  unalterable  aversion  to  kingly  rule  and  hostility  to 
Portefio  pretensions,  that  he  was  unanimously  chosen  sec 
retary  of  the  junta. 

11  The  moment  he  qualified  as  secretary  it  was  evident 
that  he  was  the  government  of  Paraguay.  I  and  Valeriano 
Zevallos,  who  had  been  chosen  president  chiefly  because  of 
the  mutual  jealousy  of  Yegros  and  Caballero,  were  totally 
unable  to  cope  with  him,  had  to  withdraw  any  suggestion 
he  disapproved  of  and  accept  any  proposal  he  made. 

"When  the  deputies  to  the  first  convention  began  to 
gather  at  Asuncion,  it  was  evident  that  loyalty  predomi 
nated  among  the  delegates  from  the  villages  and  at  the 
same  time  it  began  to  be  evident  that  the  troops  had  been 
zealous  against  the  Portefio  invasion  quite  as  much  from 
devotion  to  the  King  and  detestation  of  the  rebels  at  Buenos 
Aires  as  from  pride  in  an  independent  Paraguay,  and  that 
they  had  not  imbibed  the  ideas  which  swayed  their  generals 
and  could  not  be  depended  upon  to  coerce  the  loyalist  ma 
jority. 

'  *  At  this  moment  when  we  confidently  expected  the  con 
vention  to  proclaim  its  fealty  to  the  King  and  to  affirm  the 
unwavering  allegiance  of  Paraguay  to  the  mother-land,  he 
dominated  the  convention  by  a  trick,  as  Lisardo  told  you. 
Do  not  despise  us  too  much;  we  were  like  the  crew  and 
mariners  on  the  vice-admiral's  ship  of  a  hundred  guns 
which  was  captured  by  a  handful  of  buccaneers  in  an  open 
boat,  overwhelmingly  superior  in  force  but  hopelessly  out 
manoeuvred. 

1 '  He  had,  before  the  convention  met,  initiated  and  pushed 
with  vigour  an  investigation  of  all  departments  of  the  gov 
ernment  and  unearthed  an  amazing  number  of  matters  as 


loo  EL   SUPREMO 

to  which  my  trusted  subordinates  had  deceived  me.  His 
energy  was  prodigious.  In  a  week  he  had  replenished  the 
treasury  by  prompt  arrests,  trials,  and  fines  of  all  delin 
quents  and  their  disgorging  of  their  peculations.  Within 
the  same  time  the  custom-house  was  returning  revenue  at 
a  rate  unheard  of.  The  funds  he  at  once  used  to  pay  all 
the  troops.  He  visited  the  barracks  and  removed  all 
grounds  of  complaint  as  to  food,  uniforms,  housing  and 
equipment.  Zevallos,  perceiving  himself  being  supplanted 
in  the  affections  of  his  men,  plotted  his  destruction.  But 
the  genius  of  the  man  was  more  than  a  match  for  him.  Not 
yet  strong  enough  with  the  soldiery  to  oust  Zevallos  openly, 
backed  by  only  a  small  minority  of  the  delegates  to  the 
convention,  he  arranged  with  Yegros  and  Caballero  to 
assist  him  in  relegating  me  permanently  to  private  life  in 
exchange  for  the  support  of  their  troops  against  Zevallos 
and  Cabanas,  agreeing  himself  to  drop  out  of  sight  alto 
gether,  thus  making  it  easier  to  nullify  my  influence  and 
that  of  Zevallos  and  Cabanas  if  our  entire  junta  appar 
ently  retired  voluntarily  and  completely. 

* '  During  the  ascendency  of  the  junta  of  which  Caballero 
was  president,  which  he  and  Yegros  were  supposed  to  dom 
inate,  in  which  Don  Fernando  de  la  Mora  and  Padre  Li- 
sardo  Bogarin  were  apparently  powerful  factors,  while 
the  machinery  of  the  administration  was  nominally  in  the 
hands  of  Don  Larios  Galvan  as  secretary  and  Don  Jacinto 
Ruiz  as  notary,  yet  our  compadre  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda, 
as  assessor,  actually  controlled  everything  in  his  easy-going 
way. 

"  Naturally,  all  the  old  abuses  were  soon  in  full  swing, 
mutterings  against  favouritism  heard  from  all  classes,  in 
stances  of  extortion,  bribery  and  oppression  gossipped 
everywhere,  and  the  soldiery  sulky  and  grumbling,  with 
their  pay  in  arrears,  their  food  bad  and  insufficient,  their 
uniforms  old  and  uncomfortable,  and  their  barracks  out  of 
repair.  The  dishonesty  of  the  administration  might  have 
been  condoned,  all  South  Americans  have  always  been  in 
ured  to  dishonest  officials;  its  obvious  incompetence  was 
unendurable.  The  better  classes  were  humiliated  and 
alarmed,  the  military  discontented,  the  traders  irritated, 
the  poor  in  despair. 

"  At  first  a  dribble  of  complainants,  mostly  labourers  and 


DON   BERNARDO   VELASCO        101 

peasants,  followed  the  road  to  Ibirai  to  the  hermit  who 
there  sipped  his  mate  or  smoked  his  cigar  at  his  littered 
table  between  the  telescope  and  the  terrestrial  sphere. 

"He  listened,  sympathised,  shrugged  his  shoulders  and 
counselled  patience.  He  prepared  papers  for  poor  clients; 
briefed  cases  for  all  the  advocates  who  consulted  him;  oc 
casionally  came  int6  Asuncion  to  plead  in  some  simple, 
unpolitical  case;  defending,  for  instance,  a  peon  charged 
with  murder ;  prosecuting  civil  suits  for  indigent  women. 

"He  resolutely  declined  to  mix  in  any  way  in  larger 
matters. 

"The  trickle,  augmented  by  troopers,  corporals,  ser 
geants,  merchants,  landowners  and  gentlemen  grew  to  a 
stream,  a  daily  caravan.  All  the  disgruntled  of  Asuncion, 
sought  him,  contrasting  the  economy,  justice  and  efficiency 
of  his  brief  management  of  affairs  with  the  confusion  and 
discomfort  of  the  existing  regime.  Day  by  day  his  in 
fluence  grew  until  he  was  the  darling  of  the  soldiery,  the 
idol  of  the  commonalty,  and  the  hope  of  the  aristocracy. 

"All  this  while  he  took  no  open  part  in  any  political  in 
trigue  and  had,  apparently,  no  hand  in  calling  the  second 
convention.  By  the  time  it  met  no  file  of  soldiers  in  Para 
guay  could  have  been  trusted  to  obey  an  order  to  arrest 
him.  His  prestige  had  snuffed  out  that  of  all  competitors, 
and  the  generals  dared  not  make  any  move  against  him, 
while  no  one  else  could  even  think  of  obstruction. 

"Knowing  the  temper  of  the  military,  he  arranged  to 
have  Yegros,  the  least  clever,  I  might  say  the  most  stupid 
of  the  generals,  elected  consul,  and  himself  added  as  a  sort 
of  an  after-thought. 

"Fulgencio  told  you  what  followed.  And  ~iny  good  Vi 
cente  here  has  described  to  you  the  alteration  in  •  hh  de 
meanour.  I  myself  think  that  the  long  habit  tvf  dealing 
with  submissive  Guaranies  and  his  sense  of  immeasurable 
intellectual  superiority  to  all  men  hereabouts  have  con 
tributed  to  sharpen  his  natural  intolerance  of  opposition. 
He  sees  in  himself  the  destiny  and  happiness  of  Paraguay, 
feels  a  sort  of  divine  sanction  for  any  idea  that  enters  his 
head,  and  infers  a  traitor  in  any  one  questioning  a  word  of 
his. 

"I  came  here  with  the  wish  that  my  uncoloured  account 
of  him  might  assist  you  in  dealing  with  this  least  compre- 


102  EL   SUPREMO 

hensible,  as  he  is  the  most  formidable,  man  oft  the  western 
continents.  Any  one  else  in  Asuncion  must  colour  any 
thing  he  says  of  him  with  hate  or  fear.  I  do  not  hate  him, 
although  I  raised  him  from  insignificance  to  affluence  and 
power,  and  he  has  supplanted  me  in  the  affections  of  my 
people  and  taken  my  place  at  their  head.  I  do  not  hate 
him  for  having  made  me  a  pauper  or  for  keeping  me  a 
prisoner  in  Paraguay  to  die  alone  far  from  Spain.  I  do 
not  fear  him,  because  I  am  beyond  all  fear.  I  am  done  with 
hope,  because  I  have  no  future.  I  have  before  me  only 
the  interval  through  which  I  must  wait  till  death  comes  to 
me.  I  am  past  any  hope,  save  that  I  may  meet  my  end  as  a 
Spanish  gentleman  should.  But  partisanship  is  as  done 
with  for  me  as  anxiety.  All  my  emotions  are  of  the  past. 
Even  loyalty  to  my  King  is  no  more  a  motive  to  me  to-day 
than  the  love  I  bore  the  dear  wife  who  has  prayed  for  me 
in  heaven  these  thirty  years.  Concern  for  myself  is  as 
wholly  of  long  ago  as  the  tears  I  shed  at  those  little  graves 
where  my  Inez  and  I  wept  together.  I  am  beyond  dread 
or  desire.  I  am  without  animus  or  bias,  being,  as  it  were,  a 
disembodied  spirit,  expiating  a  part  of  my  purgatory  ins 
this  world.  I  am  a  living  man,  but  for  me  life  is  over. ' ' 

Hawthorne's  eyes  were  full  of  tears.  His  compassion 
moved  him  to  relieve  the  tension  of  the  atmosphere  by  an 
American  twist  of  jocosity. 

" Except  when  shooting  partridges,"  he  said. 

Don  Bernardo  smiled  with  a  perfect  comprehension  of 
the  sympathy  prompting  the  diversion. 

* '  Except  when  shooting  partridges, ' '  he  repeated,  twink 
ling.  VJn  the  early  dew,  with  a  Malvinas  pointer,  life 
awakens  .eveii  an  my  old  veins. ' ' 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  LAIR  OF  THE  LION 

STARTING  as  he  had  started  for  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop, 
Hawthorne    turned    to    his    right    midway    of    Calle 
Comercio  opposite  the  Cathedral  tower,  picked   his  way 
through  the  irregularities  and  litter  of  the  Cathedral  Plaza. 
Past  the  head  of  the  dried  gully,  grown  up  with  thorn- 


THE   LAIR   OF   THE   LION         103 

bushes,  separating  the  two,  he  entered  the  irregular  Market- 
Plaza. 

Facing  him  as  he  passed  the  squat  Cabildo,  he  saw  the 
long  flank  of  the  old  Jesuit  church,  at  the  corner  of  Larra- 
zabal's  new  Government  House,  of  El  Supremo's  Palacio, 
which  shared  with  the  Cathedral  the  local  honour  of  being 
one  of  the  two  grandest  buildings  in  Asuncion. 

The  eaves  of  its  red-tiled  roof  were  scarcely  lower  than 
those  of  the  Cathedral,  and  the  jutting  angle  to  the  left,  at 
the  rear  of  the  deconsecrated  church  nearest  the  Cabildo, 
showed  a  mirad-or,  a  second-floor  balcony,  in  front  of  the 
upper  of  its  two  windows,  the  lower  of  which,  with  its 
wide-set  bars,  gave  directly  on  the  corner  of  the  Market- 
Plaza,  with  no  verandah  outside  it,  only  the  semi-shelter 
of  the  overhanging  mirador. 

"When  Hawthorne  turned  the  east  corner  of  the  Palacio, 
he  scanned  more  carefully  its  river-front,  which  he  had 
barely  glanced  at  when  he  landed  the  day  before.  The 
apertures  of  the  ground  floor  arcade  were  open.  The  ve 
randahs  were  fully  twelve  feet  wide;  the  windows  under 
them  all  heavily  barred,  the  walls  whitewashed,  the  beams 
resting  on  the  piers  heavy  and  darkened  by  age. 

Precisely  at  nine  by  his  repeater  Hawthorne  presented 
himself  at  the  entrance. 

In  the  covered  way  leading  to  the  inner  quadrangle 
stood  a  Guarani  sentinel,  a  tall  grenadier 's  cap  on  his  head, 
a  very  tight  and  very  long-tailed  blue  coat  buttoned  closely 
on  him,  his  legs  in  loose  trousers,  once  white,  his  feet  bare, 
an  old  flint-lock  musket,  with  a  broad-bladed  bayonet,  in 
his  hands. 

The  sentinel  halted  Hawthorne.  Sedate  and  tall,  the 
young  man  stared  back  at  him.  He  was  no  common  or 
contemptible  figure  anywhere,  and  commanded  the  fellow's 
respect  at  once  by  his  demeanour.  In  a  barely  intelligible 
mixture  of  halting  Spanish  and  explosive  Guarani,  he 
civilly  asked  his  business.  On  Hawthorne's  repeating  sev 
eral  times  and  very  slowly  that  he  was  a  foreigner  wishing 
to  pay  his  respects  to  El  Supremo,  the  soldier  turned  his 
head  and  called  into  the  courtyard: 

"Bopi!    Bopi!" 

A  one-eyed  mulatto  boy  appeared  and  spoke  in  good 
Spanish.  Hawthorne,  in  his  stateliest  and  most  orotund 


104  EL   SUPREMO 

Castilian,  stated  that  lie  was  an  American  of  the  North, 
the  bearer  of  a  personal  letter  of  introduction  from  Senor 
Ponsonby  Staples,  consul  at  Buenos  Aires  of  his  Majesty 
the  King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  to  his  Excellency 
the  supreme  Dictator  of  Paraguay. 

The  boy  slouched  away,  his  loose  white  trousers  wagging 
over  his  bare  feet,  his  ill-fitting  white  jacket  flapping  about 
his  hips. 

He  soon  returned  and  spoke  in  Guarani  some  words  to 
the  sentinel,  who  instantly  brought  his  bayoneted  musket, 
till  then  held  horizontally  across  the  passage,  to  the  position 
of  present-arms.  Hawthorne  followed  the  boy  into  the 
patio. 

It  was  fully  twice  as  long  as  it  was  wide,  and  was  paved 
with  red  brick,  except  where  some  bare  earth  showed  round 
the  trunks  of  the  twelve  orange  trees  that  shaded  it. 

Near  the  farther  end  of  the  courtyard,  between  two  of 
the  pillars  of  the  shady  side,  was  placed  a  huge  arm-chair 
of  some  dark  wood  like  ebony,  much  carved  and  inlaid  with 
clumsy  patterns  in  ivory  and  mother-of-pearl.  Near  it  was 
a  small  rush-bottom  chair  without  arms. 

Between  and  a  little  behind  the  two  chairs  was  a  plain 
round  table,  littered  with  papers  around  a  large  silver  ink 
stand. 

Before  the  two  chairs  stood  a  young  man,  his  arms  pin 
ioned  behind  him.  On  either  side  of  him  was  a  soldier, 
musket  in  hand.  They  had  their  backs  to  Hawthorne  as 
he  approached.  Facing  them  and  him  in  front  of  the  large 
chair  stood  a  man  of  slightly  more  than  middle  height, 
spare  of  figure,  with  a  thin  face,  shaven  and  dead  pale ;  a 
straight  long  nose  sharp  as  a  chisel,  and  keen  black  eyes, 
bright  and  piercing.  Long  ringlets  of  jet  black  hair  fell 
over  his  shoulders.  He  wore  a  triangular  black  cocked 
hat,  of  the  European  fashion  of  many  years  before,  a  blue 
coat,  embroidered  with  a  great  deal  of  gold  braid  and  gold 
lace,  much  faded  and  tarnished,  a  buff  waistcoat,  buff  knee 
breeches  and  white  silk  stockings.  The  knees  of  his  breeches 
and  his  plain  low  shoes  were  adorned  with  large  gold 
buckles.  On  his  left  hand  he  wore  a  thin  gold  ring  set  with 
three  black  diamonds. 

He  wore  no  other  ornaments. 

At  his  side  hung  a  cavalry  sabre  with  a  brass  hilt  and 


THE   LAIR   OF   THE   LION         105 

guard,  and  a  black  shagreen  grip,  in  a  plain  black  leather 
scabbard,  tipped  with  brass. 

Hawthorne  recognized  the  Dictator,  and  bowed  low,  hat 
in  hand.  Franeia  fixed  on  him  a  browbeating  gaze,  which 
Hawthorne  met  full  and  unflinchingly,  his  figure  erect  in 
his  most  military  pose. 

"Who  are  you  and  what  do  you  want?"  the  Dictator 
demanded  in  Spanish. 

* '  Excelentisimo  Senor,"  said  Hawthorne,  using  his  best 
delivery  of  his  best  Castilian,  "I  am  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  a  countryman  of  General  Washington. 
I  am  the  bearer  of  a  letter  of  introduction  to  you  from  the 
English  King's  consul  at  Buenos  Aires.  I  desire  the  fa 
vour  of  an  interview  if  it  please  you,  Excelentisimo  Sefior. ' ' 
"Pardon  me,  Senor  Americano,"  said  the  Dictator,  "if 
I  keep  you  waiting  for  a  moment. ' ' 

He  turned  and  Hawthorne's  eyes  followed  his  toward 
the  young  Spaniard,  a  youth  of  the  full  blood,  and  diaboli 
cally  handsome,  and  who  strongly  reminded  Hawthorne  of 
some  one  he  had  seen  since  he  reached  Asuncion,  but  whom 
or  where  he  could  not  recall. 

The  Dictator  addressed  him  as  'Bribonazo'  (you  big  ras 
cal). 

"You  acknowledge,  Bnbonazo,"  he  enquired,  "that  the 
(girl's  story  was  true  in  all  particulars?" 

"The  facts  are  as  she  stated,"  the  Spaniard  admitted. 
The  Dictator  spoke  some  words  in  Guarani  to  the  mu- 
latto  boy,  who  had  stood  near  a  pillar  close  by.    He  sham 
bled  off. 

Almost  at  once  he  returned,  followed  by  two  soldiers  like 
the  sentinel  at  the  entrance.  They  trailed  their  muskets 
unhandily.  Between  them  they  led  an  octoroon  girl,  the 
very  girl  Hawthorne  had  seen  the  day  before  running 
weeping  down  the  street  past  Don  Vicente 's  house. 

She  was  decidedly  pretty,  though  evidently  weighed 
down  under  a  load  of  misery.  She  stood  there,  full  con 
toured,  her  small  feet  and  trim  ankles  bare,  polished  and 
clean,  her  loosely-belted  tupoi  spotlessly  white,  her  bosom 
heaving  under  its  thin  covering,  her  throat  rippling  as  she 
swallowed  often  in  a  vain  effort  to  keep  her  self-control, 
her  ^f ace  greyish  with  her  emotions,  her  eyes  lustreless,  her 
braided  hair  neat  on  her  small  head,  a  pitiable  figure  be- 


io6  EL   SUPREMO 

tween  the  ruffians.  They  held  her  each  by  one  arm  near 
her  shoulders. 

"Is  this  the  man?"  the  Dictator  questioned  her  in  Gua- 
rani.  Hawthorne  knew  that  much  Guarani.  Also  he  knew 
enough  to  catch  the  vehement  and  emphatic  affirmation  of 
her  passionate  answer.  Likewise,  he  understood  the  Dic 
tator's  curt: 

"Take  her  away!" 

Off  she  was  marched  as  she  had  been  led  in.  She  had 
come  in  silence,  she  went  in  tears,  her  sobs  echoing  in  the 
courtyard.  As  she  was  half  carried,  half  dragged  away, 
she  threw  her  head  from  side  to  side. 

"Bribonazo,"  the  Dictator  recommenced,  his  bird-of- 
prey  eyes  boring  into  those  of  the  prisoner,  "you  acknowl 
edge  the  facts,  the  victim  identifies  you.  You  are  guilty. 
You  shall  be  tied  to  a  post  in  the  market-place  and  given  a 
hundred  lashes  on  your  bare  back. ' ' 

"This,"  the  youth  exclaimed,  "is  no  fit  punishment  for 
a  Spanish  gentleman. ' ' 

"Suppose,"  the  Dictator  acidly  retorted,  "your  own  sis 
ter  had  come  to  you  on  your  father 's  estancia  and  told  you 
of  an  octoroon  on  that  estate,  the  same  tale  that  octoroon 
has  told  of  you,  would  you  not  have  given  him  a  hundred 
lashes  on  his  bare  back?" 

*  *  A  hundred ! ' '  the  demoniacal  youth  sneered.  "  I  'd  have 
had  him  given  a  thousand!  I'd  have  had  him  lashed  till 
he  died!" 

"Out  of  your  own  mouth,"  said  the  Dictator  coldly, 
"you  are  condemned.  Your  punishment  is,  if  anything,  too 
light.  Take  your  hundred  lashes  and  be  thankful." 

"I  had  rather,"  the  youth  burst  put,  '/be  shot." 

The  Dictator's  eyes  narrowed  to  pin  points. 

<rYou  had  rather  be  shot!"  he  hissed.  "You  deserve 
death  surely.  You  have  chosen  for  yourself.  Shot  you 
shall  be." 

He  turned  to  Hawthorne. 

' i  Seiior  Americano, ' '  he  said,  ' '  I  have  kept  you  standing 
too  long  because  of  this  trifling  affair.  Be  seated. ' ' 

He  motioned  with  a  rather  stiff  gesture,  awkwardly  gra 
cious,  toward  the  smaller  chair,  thereupon  seating  himself 
in  the  arm-chair.  So  seated,  he  half  turned,  reached  out  a 
long,  thin  arm  to  the  table,  seized  a  quill  pen,  and  dipped 


THE   LAIR   OF   THE   LION         107 

it  in  the  big  silver  inkstand.  With  his  left  hand  he  took 
a  small  book  from  the  pocket  of  his  waistcoat;  opening  it, 
he  scribbled  a  few  words  on  a  leaf,  tossed  the  pen  on  the 
table,  tore  the  leaf  from  the  book,  and  returned  the  book 
to  his  pocket. 

Looking  up,  he  saw  the  boy  Bopi  before  him. 

"  Well  ?"  he  queried. 

The  mulatto  answered  in  the  vernacular. 

"Show  them  in,"  the  Dictator  commanded. 

Hawthorne  saw  cross  the  courtyard  towards  him  two 
young  Spanish  gentlemen  wearing  the  garb  which  Creole 
self-respect  in  Asuncion  appeared  to  require  in  defiance  of 
the  torrid  climate.  Save  that  one  wore  a  red  coat  and 
green  breeches  and  the  other  blue  and  orange,  they  were 
dressed  alike:  long-tailed,  big-flapped,  huge-cuffed,  great- 
pocketed,  many-buttoned  coats  of  bright  cloth,  embroidered 
vests,  satin  knee-breeches,  white  silk  stockings  and  gold- 
buckled  shoes,  the  whole  set  off  by  slender  court-swords  in 
polished  scabbards.  Their  cocked  hats,  gay-plumed,  they 
carried,  Hawthorne  noted,  in  their  hands. 

As  they  approached,  he  recognized  Don  Nulfo  Recaldo 
and  that  Don  Venancio  Lopez,  whose  good  looks,  whose 
downright  beauty  he  had  remarked  the  night  before  at  the 
supper  after  the  bathing  party.  He  instantly  realized  that 
the  prisoner  was  Don  Venancio 's  brother. 

Before  the  Dictator  the  two  bowed  low. 

"What  do  you  want?"  he  enquired  curtly. 

"We  have  come,"  Don  Venancio  began,  "to  intercede 
for  my  brother  Narciso. ' ' 

"Intercessions,"  the  Dictator  snarled,  "are  an  imperti 
nence  in  all  cases,  and  in  this  doubly  so.  The  case  has 
been  heard,  your  brother  is  guilty,  he  has  confessed,  he  has 
chosen  his  punishment  himself,  the  matter  is  closed. ' ' 

"We  have  come,"  Don  Nulfo  put  in,  "to  plead  with  you 
that  a  Spanish  gentleman  should  not  be  punished  at  all  on 
the  representations  of  a  mere  octoroon  girl." 

^  Francia  leapt  to  his  feet.  Hawthorne,  ceremoniously 
rising  at  the  same  time,  watched  him  keenly.  His  attitude, 
gestures  and  expression  were  not  only  menacing  but  singu 
larly  majestic.  To  Hawthorne  he  seemed  the  embodiment 
of  righteous  wrath  and  conscious  power. 

"You  Spaniards,"  he  burst  out,  "are  utterly  unendur- 


'iio8  EL   SUPREMO 

able !  Your  one  idea  of  government  is  that  all  classes  of 
the  community  shall  be  exploited  for  your  benefit,  shall 
minister  to  your  well-being,  shall  subserve  your  whims 
and  desires,  shall  bow  to  your  bidding ;  and  that  you  your 
selves  shall  form  a  class  apart,  apart  from  and  above  all 
others.  Can  nothing  make  you  realize  that  Paraguay  has 
been  these  five  years  a  republic,  in  which  all  are  equal  un 
der  the  government  ?  That  for  two  years  now  I  have  been* 
the  government?  That  there  are  but  two  classes  in  Para 
guay  :  I,  who  am  supreme,  and  all  other  human  beings,  who 
are  precisely  on  a  level  with  each  other,  and  shall  be  dealt 
with  exactly  alike  ?  To  nq^man,  to  no  woman2jshaJL  I  do 
injustice^orjeem^  do  treat,  TlTTall  treat,  the 

complaint  of  the  poorest  Indian  or  negro  against  even  Don 
Bernardo  Velasco  himself,  just  as  I  should  treat  his  com 
plaint  against  the  lowliest  creature  in  Paraguay.  I  shall 
di^aYQui*^rio_on^i_and  favour  no  one. 

"And'l  shall  perrnitTiio  intercessions,  no  appeals,  no 
criticisms  of  my  decisions.  This  is  the  last  impertinence  of 
the  kind  that  shall  go  unpunished.  You  shall  realize,  all 
shall  realize,  I  am  absolute.  If  you  speak  another  word  ft 
me  questioning  my  decision,  I  shall  have  you,  along  with 
this  bribonazo,  you  should  be  ashamed  to  acknowledge  as 
your  brother,  shot  as  he  shall  be." 

' '  Shot ! ' '  Don  Venancio  exclaimed.    ( '  "When  ? ' ' 

"At  once!"  the  Dictator  snarled,  his  face  livid  with' 
rage. 

"May  we  not  get  him  a  priest?"  Don  Yenancio  stam 
mered.  "May  not  my  mother  and  father  at  least  bid  him 
adieu?" 

"Whether  he  is  to  go  to  God,"  Francia  sneered,  "I  can 
not  say.  His  relations,  if  they  desire  to  address  so  vile  a 
scoundrel,  may  speak  to  him  if  they  are  in  time.  You 
know  the  place!" 

"But  may  he  not  at  least  have  a  priest?"  Don  Yenancio 
begged.  "May  we  not  have  time  to  get  him  a  priest?" 

"You  may  get  him  a  priest,"  the  Dictator  announced, 
"if  you  are  quick  enough.  I  shall  not  have  the  execution* 
delayed  on  any  pretext.  Go ! "  9  9 

"May  I  not  speak  a  few  words  aside  to  my  brother/  , 
Don  Yenancio  pleaded. 

' '  If  you  speak  any  word  more  in  my  presence, '   the  Die- 


THE   LAIR   OF   THE   LION         109 

tator  thundered,  "you  shall  be  shot  with  him.  Go  while 
you  may.  Go  with  God  !  '  ' 

The  young  men  bowed  woodenly,  yet  ceremoniously. 
The  prisoner  had  not  looked  at  them  more  than  one  first 
glance  as  they  came  in.  He  did  not  look  after  them  as 
they  hurried  away. 

The  Dictator  turned  his  head  and  called  sharply  : 


A  lieutenant,  booted  and  belted,  but  otherwise  habited 
like  the  sentinel  and  the  two  soldiers,  appeared  from  under 
the  colonnade.  He  saluted  and  stood  at  attention,  saluted 
unhandily  and  stood  at  attention  slouchily  ;  still  he  saluted 
and  stood  at  attention. 

"Take  this  paper,"  Francia  said,  holding  out  to  him  the 
leaf  torn  from  his  note-book,  "  carry  out  the  order  written 
on  it,  and  return  it  to  me  when  carried  out." 

The  lieutenant  took  the  paper. 

Francia  felt  in  the  pocket  of  his  coat  and  produced  three 
cartridges,  the  cartridges  of  the  year  1816,  loose,  lumpy 
cylinders  of  greased  paper,  tied  at  each  end,  bulgy  with  a 
globular  bullet  and  a  loose  charge  of  powder. 

He  extended  these  to  the  lieutenant,  who  took  them. 

'  '  You  may  wait  until  high  noon  at  the  tree  for  the  priest' 
and  the  parents,  '  '  Francia  commanded.  '  '  No  longer.  Leave 
no  guard  over  him  afterwards.  They  may  take  away  the 
corpse  at  once.  Go  !  " 

The  two  soldiers  wheeled  their  prisoner,  the  lieutenant 
fell  in  behind  them  instead  of  walking  in  front  of  them, 
and  all  four  tramped  off  and  disappeared. 

"Without  a  glance  after  the  pitiful  procession,  Francia 
turned  to  Hawthorne. 

"Senor,"  he  said,  "I  ask  pardon  for  detaining  you  for 
such  trifles.  Such  interruptions  are  inevitable.  Cover  your 
head  or  remain  uncovered,  as  you  please.  I  have  never 
before  seen  a  citizen  of  your  illustrious  country  ;  with  you, 
as  I  shall  with  any  others,  I  waive  all  ceremony." 

Hawthorne,  unaffectedly  horrified,  though  he  had  seen 
numberless  arbitrary  executions  up  and  down  the  conti 
nent  as  in  Cuyo  and  Granada,  kept  his  self-possession  and 
controlled  his  countenance  to  a  well-  assumed  expression  of 
deference.  He  held  out  the  letter,  which  the  Dictator  took. 
He  seated  himself  in  his  arm-chair,  waving  a  not  ungracious 


no  EL   SUPREMO 

hand  toward  tlie  other,  which  Hawthorne  reoccupied,  keep 
ing,  however,  his  hat  in  his  hand. 

The  Dictator  read  the  superscription  of  the  letter  and, 
finding  there  all  his  titles,  broke  the  seal.  He  ran  his  eye 
over  the  contents,  and  said : 

"Seilor  Don  Guillermo,  this  letter  recommends  you  in 
the  most  flattering  terms.  But  I  care  nothing  for  the  rec 
ommendation  of  the  British  Consul  at  Buenos  Aires,  whom 
I  do  not  know  and  whom  I  have  never  seen.  Yourself  I 
have  seen,  and  I  know  you.  I  know  men.  I  read  men. 
Seldom  do  I  read  them  wrong.  I  do  not  read  you  wrong. 
I  know  you.  Tell  me  why  you  have  come  to  Paraguay." 

Hawthorne's  clear,  level  gaze  met  Francia's.  Before  he 
could  utter  a  word,  the  Dictator  spoke  again : 

"Ah,  you  have  a  spine  in  your  back!  You  Americans! 
You  hold  up  your  heads !  You  look  a  man  in  the  face.  My 
Paraguayans  scan  the  pavement  or  their  eyes  shift  and 
wander.  I  often  tell  Sabola  and  Narvaez  to  try  dissecting 
their  corpses  to  see  if  they  are  not  constructed  differently 
from  other  men.  I  conjecture  that  they  lack  a  bone  in 
their  necks.  Or  perhaps  they  have  one  too  many  and  can 
not  hold  up  their  heads  on  that  account.  However  that 
may  be,  tell  me  what  has  brought  you  to  Asuncion. ' ' 

"In  a  word/'  said  Hawthorne,  "I  have  come  expecting 
to  enrich  myself  by  showing  you  how  to  enrich  yourself 
tenfold  and  your  country  a  thousandfold." 

"Men  such  as  yourself,  Don  Guillermo,"  said  the  Dic 
tator,  ' l  are  always  and  shall  always  be  welcomed  by  me.  I 
even  permit  such  men  to  address  me  familiarly,  as  you  do." 

"  Excelentisimo  Senor,"  said  Hawthorne,  quickly  catch 
ing  and  dexterously  availing  himself  of  the  implied  rebuke, 
"to  explain  my  ideas  and  purposes,  I  must  ask  your  indul 
gence  for  a  somewhat  lengthy  discourse." 

"It  is  freely  granted,"  said  the  Dictator;  "you  interest 
me." 

Taking  a  cigar-case  from  the  breast  pocket  of  his  coat, 
he  offered  it  to  Hawthorne,  who  took  one  of  the  huge  native 
cigars.  He  puffed  once  or  twice  and  then,  while  the  Dic 
tator  smoked  steadily,  he  began : 

"Excelentisimo  Senor,  Paraguay  possesses  a  source  of 
unbounded  opulence  which  is  not  at  present  regarded. 
Chocolate  has  been  known  to  the  world  but  some  three  hun- 


THE    LAIR   OF   THE   LION         in 

dred  years.  It  has  already  won  the  approval  of  a  consid 
erable  portion  of  mankind,  is  much  drunk  and  enriches 
many  districts  which  produce  it.  Coffee  has  been  known 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years,  is  drunk  by  a  great  part 
of  the  human  race,  and  makes  wealthy  communities  far 
larger  and  more  numerous  than  those  which  produce  choco 
late.  And  what  need  I  say  of  tea.  which  is  consumed  all 
over  the  world  and  which  is  the  chief  source  of  affluence  to 
China,  that  most  prosperous  and  populous  of  nations? 
Now,  Paraguay  produces  mate,  which  gives  mankind  a  bev 
erage  far  more  delightful  to  taste,  far  more  beneficial  in  its 
effects  than  chocolate,  coffee  or  tea.  Yet  it  is  allowed  to  go 
to  waste.  The  production  of  yerba  is  not  carried  on  ener 
getically,  nor  is  its  export  pushed  with  any  sort  of  vigour. 
It  is  drunk  universally  throughout  the  republic,  but  even  in 
the  neighbouring  parts  of  South  America  the  trade  in  it  is 
slack  and  slow,  while  outside  of  this  continent  it  is  unknown. 
All  this  can  easily  be  changed.  Mate  is  a  beverage  as  su 
perior  to  chocolate,  coffee  or  tea,  as  they  are  to  beer,  wine, 
rum  or  any  kind  of  spirits.  Yerla  need  only  be  known  to 
take  at  once  its  proper  place  in  popular  favour  above  all 
other  beverages  which  the  world  produces.  Wherever  it  is 
known,  the  demand  for  it  will  be  immediate  and  universal. 
Then  consider,  Excelentisimo  Senor,  the  tribute  which 
would  flow  into  Paraguay  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  For 
whereas  coffee  is  grown  in  many  and  divers  places  and  may 
be  grown  in  many  more  throughout  the  tropics,  its  spread 
depending  only  on  the  enterprise  of  the  communities  which 
strive  to  raise  it,  whereas  chocolate  is  in  much  the  same 
case,  whereas  even  tea  may  be  raised  outside  of  China,  there 
is  not,  I  am  told,  one  single  plant  of  yer'ba  mate  beyond  the 
"borders  of  Paraguay.  You  have  it  all.  You  can  prevent 
the  export  or  smuggling  of  seeds  or  cuttings,  you  can  keep 
the  culture  of  the  tree  and  the  preparation  of  the  powder 
forever  within  the  limits  of  your  nation,  you  can  remain  in 
perpetuity  in  possession  of  the  entire  supply  of  an  article 
which  men  of  every  country  will  clamour  for  as  soon  as 
they  know  of  it,  for  which  they  will  pay  liberally,  and 
which  they  will  never  cease  to  purchase  after  they  have 
once  begun  to  use  it.  Do  I  make  myself  intelligible,  Ex 
celentisimo  Senor  ? ' ' 

"Most  intelligible,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  the  Dictator 


112  EL   SUPREMO 

replied.  "You  interest  me  still  more;  what  you  say  is  full 
of  sense.  But  what  I  desire  to  know  is  what  you  propose 
to  do." 

' '  Excelentisimo  Senor, ' '  said  Hawthorne,  * '  I  do  not  ven 
ture  to  propose  anything.  I  leave  the  making  of  the  prop 
osition  to  you.  But  with  your  permission,  Excelentisimo 
Senor,  I  shall  unfold  to  you  what  I  think  is  necessary  to 
the  success  I  hope  for  and  which  is  within  your  grasp.  Li 
the  first  place,  I  may  not  be  the  only  man  with  this  idea. 
At  this  moment  there  may  be  in  Buenos  Aires,  in  Monte 
video,  in  Brazil  or  in  Peru  some  man  who  has  formed  this 
same  conception.  There  may  be  more  than  one.  There 
may  be  scores.  Such  ideas  are  in  the  air,  as  it  were,  and 
for  a  long  time  suspected  by  no  one,  are  often  when  first 
grasped,  grasped  by  several  thinkers  at  the  same  instant. 
So  it  may  be  with  this  idea  of  mine.  The  first  thing,  then, 
to  be  done  is  for  you  to  prohibit  the  export  of  any  part  or 
product  of  the  mate  tree  except  the  leaf-powder  as  usually 
bagged  and  vended  by  the  yerlateros.  Of  equal  importance 
is  it  that  you  should  send  bodies  of  troops  to  patrol  your 
borders  everywhere ;  to  the  north,  east  and  south  especially, 
where  they  are  easiest  of  access  from  Brazil.  You  can 
thus  forestall  any  effort  to  gather  and  prepare  mate  on 
debatable  ground  or  to  carry  cuttings  or  seeds  across  those 
portions  of  your  boundaries. 

' '  The  second  matter  of  importance,  Excelentisimo  Senor, 
is  that  the  method  of  production  of  mate  be  improved.  The 
export  of  cotton  is  a  source  of  great  wealth  to  my  country. 
Formerly  the  production  scarcely  sufficed  for  home  needs. 
But  since  the  invention  of  a  machine  for  preparing  the 
fibre,  the  quantity  produced  by  the  same  amount  of  labour 
is  greatly  increased  and  the  quality  is  far  better.  So  with 
mate.  I  am  told  that  it  now  grows  only  wild,  and  is  gath 
ered  from  forests  and  thickets.  By  the  methods  of  the 
Jesuits  of  fifty  years  ago  and  earlier,  groves  or  orchards  or 
plantations  of  the  tree  may  be  created.  The  details  of 
gathering  the  leaves  and  preparing  the  powder  should  be 
investigated.  The  packing  of  the  powder  should  be  better. 
The  raw-hide  bags  spoil  the  flavour  for  Europeans.  Bags 
of  canvas  should  be  used  instead. 

' '  The  third  requisite  for  success,  Excelentisimo  Senor,  is 
that  mate  be  brought  to  notice  in  every  country.  I  have 


THE   LAIR   OF  THE   LION         113 

read  that  within  fifty  years  hundreds  of  coffee-rooms  ap 
peared  in  England,  that  within  ten  years  after  tobacco  was 
first  introduced  into  London  more  than  a  thousand  shops 
for  the  sale  of  it  were  driving  a  lucrative  trade  in  that 
«ity.  I  vow  that  I  helieve  that  within  ten  years  after  mate 
is  first  introduced  into  England  more  than  a  hundred  mate- 
rooms  will  be  well  patronised.  And  the  like  is  to  be  ex 
pected  of  Paris  and  Madrid,  of  Vienna  and  Moscow,  of 
coffee-loving  Constantinople,  and  Calcutta.  Even  in  China, 
the  home  of  tea,  mate  will  be  eagerly  bought  and  used  once 
it  is  introduced.  Only  one  trial  is  needed  to  make  any  one 
prefer  it  to  any  other  drink.  What  is  required  is  that  men 
who  believe  in  it,  who  realise  its  worth,  men  who  can  talk 
well,  should  visit  the  capitals  of  the  world  and  demonstrate 
its  unquestionable  superiority.  Wherever  such  a  man  has 
been  with  a  stock  of  the  best  mate,  he  will  leave  behind  him 
at  least  one  establishment  for  its  sale,  at  least  one  popular 
resort  supported  by  the  profits  of  preparing  the  drink  and 
vending  it  to  throngs  of  delighted  patrons.  More  and  more 
will  spring  up  from  the  first.  The  spread  of  its  vogue  will 
follow  irresistibly,  will  grow  like  the  sweep  of  an  inunda 
tion,  will  expand  over  the  whole  earth. 

"This,  then,  is  my  suggestion:  Limit  the  production  of 
yerla  to  Paraguay  absolutely,  improve  its  quality  to  the 
uttermost,  herald  its  virtues  and  charms  throughout  the 
world.  Do  I  make  myself  understood,  Exeelentisirno 
Senor?" 

"Entirely,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  the  Dictator  replied. 
"You  speak  well.  You  speak  Spanish  very  well.  Do  you 
speak  any  other  languages  ? ' ' 

"I  speak  French,''  Hawthorne  replied. 

"If  you  are  as  fluent  in  French  as  in  Spanish, "  said 
Francia,  "you  should  have  a  better  command  of  it  than  I. 
You  are  even  eloquent  in  Spanish.  You  dazzle  me.  I  see 
it  all  happen.  I  touch  the  heaps  of  silver  and  gold. ' ' 

(  "You  shall,"  Hawthorne  affirmed.    "I  await  your  con- 
sideration  of  what  I  have  said,  and  your  decision  upon  it." 

As  he  spoke  these  words,  Hawthorne  perceived  that 
Francia  was  no  longer  eyeing  him,  but  staring  the  length 
of  the  courtyard. 


114  EL   SUPREMO 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   PYTHONESS 

FOLLOWING  the  Dictator's  gaze,  Hawthorne  looked 
down  the  patio.  He  saw  approaching  an  elderly 
woman  and  a  young  man.  The  young  man  carried  his 
cocked  hat  in  his  hand  and  showed  a  bare  head  of  short 
brown  curls,  setting  off  a  handsome,  genial,  smiling  face. 
He  was  tall  and  trod  jauntily,  his  slender  court-sword 
easily  out  of  the  way  of  his  feet,  his  graceful  form  clad  in 
a  perfectly  fitting  suit  of  pale  blue  silk  with  silver  facings, 
his  calves  well  turned  under  the  inevitable  white  stock 
ings. 

Hawthorne  recognised  his  shipmate,  young  Don  Beltran 
Jaray,  and  felt,  even  after  four  months  of  daily  and  day 
long  companionship,  the  thrill  which  Beltran's  presence 
never  failed  to  give  him.  It  was  as  if  the  day  had  been 
cloudy  and  the  sun  had  but  now  come  out  full  strength,  as 
if  the  courtyard  had  been  dimly  lit,  and  suddenly  blazed 
with  the  brilliance  of  noon  sunlight,  with  the  glow  of  tropic 
warmth  and  colour. 

He  glanced  at  the  Dictator,  to  see  whether  he  also  felt 
Beltran's  charm,  and  seemed  to  surmise  on  that  cold,  in 
scrutable  countenance  a  flicker  of  astonishment  and  inter 
est;  thought  he  discerned  through  its  iron  impassivity  an 
uncontrollable  softening  of  that  icy  heart  toward  the  magic 
of  Beltran's  radiant  personality. 

Hawthorne  himself  was  more  interested  in  the  old  lady 
behind  whom  Beltran  paced.  Manifestly  this  was  his  re 
doubtable  grandmother,  Doiia  Juana  Isquibel. 

Hawthorne  regarded  her  with  attention. 

She  wore  a  flat-crowned,  broad-brimmed  straw  hat,  under 
which  her  face  showed  wizened,  wrinkled  and  altogether 
like  an  old  dried  apple.  Out  of  its  seams  and  lines  her 
eyes  sparkled  like  the  black  diamonds  in  the  Dictator's 
ring. 

Her  throat  was  pouched  and  hung  in  folds,  but  her  neck 
and  bosom  were  firm  and  smooth  as  a  girl's.  She  wore  the 
universal  native  tupoi  of  white  cotton  loosely  girdled  with 
an  embroidered  red  and  green  belt.  It  amazed  Hawthorne 


THE    PYTHONESS  uj 

after  all  he  had  heard  of  her  great  age  to  see  the  youthful 
contour  of  her  bust,  the  slenderness  of  her  uncorseted 
waist,  the  easy  uprightness  of  her  carriage,  the  springy 
vitality  of  her  walk.  Her  gown  was  short,  according  to  the 
style  approved  at  Asuncion,  and  showed  trig,  white-stock 
inged  ankles,  and  small  slippered  feet.  She  walked  straight 
up  to  the  Dictator,  and  while  her  grandson  behind  her 
bowed  low,  she  held  out  a  small  hand,  brown  indeed  and 
lank,  but  shapely  and  tiny  beyond  belief  and  with  deli 
cately  tapered  fingers.  The  Dictator  took  it,  bent  over  it, 
and  kissed  it  without  a  word.  Between  him  and  Haw 
thorne  she  marched  and  plumped  herself  into  the  chair 
from  which  Hawthorne  had  risen. 

"  Since  you  have  not  had  the  grace,  Gaspar,"  she  an 
nounced,  "to  ask  me  to  have  a  chair,  111  take  one  for  my 
self.  I'd  take  yours,  but  perhaps  your  idea  of  your  new 
dignities  might  lead  you  to  think  it  incumbent  upon  you  to 
send  me  to  the  banquillo  for  disrespect. J ' 

She  was  entirely  at  her  ease  under  the  Dictator's  brow 
beating  gaze. 

' '  How  did  you  get  in  1 "  he  demanded. 

"Oh,  you  can  work  miracles,  Gaspar,"  she  harangued 
him.  "You  are  supreme,  and  your  word  is  law  for  men 
and  beasts,  for  plants  and  trees,  for  winds  and  stars.  You 
can  transform  a  batch  of  no-account  mulattoes  into  a  for 
midable  squadron  of  lancers  after  a  mere  six  weeks'  drill; 
you  can  rig  up  your  guards  in  big  fur  shakoes  under  this 
merciless  sun  and  squeeze  them  into  long-tailed,  tight- 
waisted  coats,  and  make  them  keep  them  buttoned  over  the 
red  waistcoats  you  made  for  them  out  of  pulpit-curtains, 
and  somehow  you  have  the  luck  that  they  do  not  die  of 
heat  in  their  finery;  you  can  call  them  grenadiers  or  hus- 
ears  as  you  please,  whether  they  are  afoot  or  on  horseback, 
and  nobody  laughs,  for  they  are  really  efficient  troops,  too, 
in  spite  of  their  absurd  attire ;  you  can  shoot  young  noble 
men  without  trial  for  sowing  half  of  the  wild  oats  you 
sowed  at  the  same  age;  you  can  do  all  sorts  of  wonders, 
but  you  cannot  create  a  sentry  who  will  halt  me — and  you 
know  it ! 

"I  was  La  Suprema  long  before  you  were  El  Supremo, 
long  before  you  were  born,  Godson,  ten  years  earlier,  at 
least,  and  maybe  twenty-five,  if  the  whole  truth  were  known. 


,n6  EL   SUPREMO 

I'm  not  La  Suprema  any  more,  but  I  was  once,  was  for 
many  years,  was  unmatehable  and  incomparable  and  hailed 
such  by  universal  acclamation,  not  by  a  mere  majority  vote 
made  unanimous  under  duress.  It  was  acclamation,  too, 
that  hailed  me  La  Perpetua.  You'll  be  voted  El  Perpetuo 
next  convention,  I  suppose,  if  you  want  it,  but  I  am  La 
Perpetua  already,  have  been  for  five  and  twenty  years  and 
shall  be  as  long  as  I  live.  I  'm  due  all^  the  respect,  all  the 
reverence  that  belongs  to  all  sorts  of  Everlastings  and  Im 
mortelles.  And  your  sentries  accord  it  to  me.  And  you 
can't  get  the  instinct  out  of  them,  not  if  you  fusillade  one 
out  of  every  ten  to  disabuse  the  rest  of  their  deference  to 
wards  me.  So  there !  I  have  been  La  Suprema  in  my  time 
just  as  much  as  you  are  El  Supremo  in  yours.  And  I  am 
La  Perpetua  as  long  as  I  live,  shall  be  La  Perpetua  as  long 
as  I  breathe. ' ' 

"When  she  paused,  the  Dictator,  at  once  sourly  and  in 
dulgently,  remarked : 

' '  You  have  plenty  of  breath  to  spare,  Godmother. ' ' 

"Sixteen  years  of  it,"  she  smiled.  "If  I  have  my  way, 
I  mean  to  live  to  be  a  hundred. ' ' 

"And  meanwhile,"  Francia  smiled  back  at  her,  "you. 
exact  subservience  of  all  men." 

"As  I  did  when  I  was  fourteen,"  she  boasted,  "and  got 
it!" 

"And  get  it  yet,"  Francia  added  gallantly. 

"Now  you  speak  sensibly,  Gaspar,"  she  chirped.  "Keep 
on  being  sensible.  To  begin  with,  promise  me  you  will 
not  have  the  sentry  shot ! ' ' 

' '  The  promise  is  given, ' '  Francia  bowed. 

"Not  punished  at  all,"  she  insisted. 

' '  I  shall  confine  himself, ' '  the  Dictator  enunciated  haugh 
tily,  '  *  to  convincing  him  that  you  are  the  only  living  being 
who  may  enter  here  unannounced." 

"You  may  spare  yourself  the  trouble,  Gaspar,"  she 
chuckled;  "he  knows  that  already.  He  nearly  bayoneted 
Beltran  before  I  could  convince  him  that  he  was  under  my 
protection  and  passed  with  me.  You  may  depend  upon 
your  present  sentry  and  any  of  his  fellows  to  relax  your 
orders  to  no  one  on  earth  save  me  only. ' ' 

During  this  passage  at  arms  Hawthorne  was  mute,  of 
course,  and  rigid.  Not  a  muscle  of  him  moved  except  his 


THE   PYTHONESS  117 

eyes ;  they  were  more  than  busy,  for  he  was  eager  to  miss 
nothing  of  the  play  of  vanity,  self-complacency  and  arro 
gance  upon  the  old  lady's  wonderful  visage,  and  no  less 
eager  to  watch  the  subtle  indications,  perceptible  to  him 
who  thought  he  had  the  clue,  of  Francia's  immediate  and 
positive  interest  in  Beltran,  of  his  warming  towards  him, 
of  his  melting  under  the  witchery  of  Beltran 's  individual 
ity.  The  Dictator  was  all  attention  to  the  imperious  dow 
ager,  yet  kept  shooting  swift  glances  at  Beltran,  conning 
him  all  over. 

At  the  first  opportunity  which  Sefiora  Isquibel  gave  him, 
he  remarked : 

"You  remind  me  that  you  have  not  told  me  why  you 
have  come." 

"In  the  first  place,"  Doiia  Juana  declared,  "to  present 
to  you  my  grandson,  Don  Beltran  Jaray,  newly  returned 
home  from  Spain,  who  wishes  to  pay  his  respects  to  you." 

"With  a  charming  affability,  the  Dictator  acknowledged 
the  young  man's  bow. 

"Your  manners  are  still  good,  Gaspar,"  Dona  Juana 
commented.  "Power  has  not  spoiled  them.  But  they 
would  show  better  if  you  presented  your  guest  to  me,  called 
Bopi  to  set  chairs  for  the  two  young  men,  who  are  doubt 
less  tired  with  standing,  and  sat  down  yourself." 

"This  gentleman,"  Franeia  said,  "is  Don  Guillermo 
Atorno,  of  the  Estados  Unidos  del  America  del  Norte. 
Sen  or  Don  Guillermo,  let  me  present  you  to  Dona  Juana 
Isquibel  of  Itapua,  my  revered  Godmother. ' ' 

"Old  fool  that  I  am,"  Dona  Juana  cried,  springing  to 
her  feet,  "not  to  recognize  Beltran 's  friend." 

She  seized  his  hands  and  continued : 

"You  must  kiss  me  like  a  good  grandson.  I  consider 
you  my  other  grandson.  Beltran  talked  of  you  half  the 
night" 

Hawthorne  was  more  than  a  little  embarrassed,  but  the 
vivacious  old  creature  drew  him  to  her  and  kissed  him  be* 
fore  he  knew  what  had  happened. 

"Bopi!"  Franeia  called  sharply,  adding  some  words  in 
Guarani.  In  a  moment  the  mulatto  boy  appeared,  half 
dragging,  half  carrying  two  rush-bottom  chairs,  with  the 
universal  tall,  straight  backs. 

When  the  chairs  were  placed,  Doiia  Juana  bounced  back 


iiS  EL    SUPREMO 

to  hers,  Francia  occupied  his  official  seat,  and  the  young 
men,  at  his  bidding  and  urging,  sat  down  also. 

At  once  Seriora  Isquibel  spoke  again : 

* '  In  the  second  place,  Gaspar,  I  have  come  to  tell  you  that 
I  am  going  to  have  a  fiesta  the  day  after  to-morrow,  on  my 
birthday,  in  honour  of  the  feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
to  thank  him  for  bringing  my  grandson  and  goddaughter 
safe  home  to  us  from  across  the  ocean.  I  am  going  to  in 
vite  everybody  worth  having,  and  I  want  you  to  come 
too." 

"I  have  never  attended  festivities,"  Francia  demurred, 
" since  my  elevation  to  authority." 

"But  you  are  going  to  attend  this  festivity,"  Dona  Juana 
declared,  waving  one  hand. 

"It  may  be,"  the  Dictator  smiled,  "that  I  shall  come." 

"I'm  not  going  to  have  any  'may  he's/  "  the  masterful 
old  lady  proclaimed.  "And  as  they  won't  care  a  button 
for  how  I  persuade  you,  will  you  please  give  these  young 
bucks  leave  to  chat  while  I  bring  you  round. '  * 

The  Dictator  inclined  his  head  toward  the  young  men, 
with  a  wave  of  his  hand,  Dofia  Juana  leaned  toward  him 
and  lowered  her  voice. 

"How  did  you  sleep,  Guillermo?"  Beltran  asked. 

"As  you  did,  I  trust,"  Hawthorne  answered,  "as  a  man 
ought  to  after  four  months  of  baking  deck-house  and  mos 
quitoes  by  the  million,  when  he  sleeps  under  a  net-canopy 
on  a  deep,  soft  bed." 

' '  Found  any  marvels  in  Asuncion  yet  ? ' '  Beltran  queried. 

"At  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop,"  Hawthorne  began. 

"Yes,"  Beltran  broke  in  on  him,  "Grandmother  tells  me 
the  old  boy  hasn't  aged  much  or  changed  much  in  twelve 
years,  and  talks  as  much  as  ever." 

"It  is  not  that,"  Hawthorne  explained.  "I  was  aston 
ished  to  see  wine  sold  at  a  copper  a  quart,  drunk  out  of 
silver  and  the  goblets  and  tankards  lying  pell-mell  on  the 
casks. ' ' 

"Oh,"  Beltran  exclaimed,  enlightened,  "that's  natural 
here !  Nobody  ever  steals  anything  in  Asuncion ;  and  silver 
is  cheapest  in  the  end ;  never  wears  out,  and  can  be  melted 
Tip  any  time." 

"I  was  still  more  astonished,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "to 
see  the  magnificent  doctor  go  down  on  his  green  satin  knee 


THE   PYTHONESS  119 

to  draw  a  stoup  of  wine  for  a  half-naked,  barefoot,  pon- 
choed  peon." 

"That  would  surprise  a  native,"  Beltran  ruminated. 
"Only  gentlemen  frequent  Bargas'  premises.  Probably 
some  poor  devil  on  his  first  visit  to  the  capital  blundered  in 
there  and  of  course  Bargas  wouldn't  have  hurt  his  feel 
ings;  no  Castilian  would. " 

The  mulatto  slouched  across  the  court  and  grunted  some 
sentences  in  Guarani,  some  words  of  which  Hawthorne 
understood. 

"Who?"  the  Dictator  queried  sharply,  in  the  same 
tongue. 

"Don  Basilic  Goyez,"  Bopi  enunciated  intelligibly 
enough. 

"Tell  him  to  wait!"  Francia  snapped  out,  still  in  Gua 
rani. 

Instantly  he  dismissed  the  matter ;  and  as  Bopi  shambled 
off,  at  once  again  was  all  quizzical  attention  to  Dona  Juana. 

"It  is  understood,  then  "  she  resumed,  "that  you  are  to 
come." 

"I  have  not  said  so,"  Francia  demurred. 

'  '  No, ' '  the  old  lady  blandly  admitted,  "  but  I  have.  And 
the  arguments  I  have  just  rehearsed  were  enough  to  con 
vince  any  sane  human  being.  You  are  coming.  That  is 
settled.  But  I  want  you  not  only  to  come,  but  to  be  agree 
able.  I  'm  not  going  to  leave  Jose  Carisimo  at  home,  and  I 
don't  mean  you  to  spoil  my  party  by  snubbing  him." 

"I  shall  not  argue  the  point,"  Francia  declared  acidly. 

"No,"  the  old  lady  snapped,  "you  won't!  You'll  come, 
and  you'll  behave  properly  to  him.  He's  punished  enough 
for  a  slip  of  the  tongue  he  never  intended.  He's  perfectly 
willing  to  call  you  'Most  Excellent  Sir,'  ten  times  in  every 
sentence,  if  he  can  only  remember  to  do  it.  And  he'll  re 
member  it  after  all  the  fuss  you  have  made.  Come  and  ba 
decent  to  him. ' ' 

"I  am  sure,"  said  Francia  slyly,  "that  I  shall  never  have 
any  difficulty  being  polite  to  Don  Jose,  supposing  we  ever 
meet  again.  I  am  unaware  of  any  default  in  manners  to 
wards  him  in  the  past.  You  forget  that  it  was  altogether 
he  who  failed  in  deference  towards  me.  If  you  can  assure 
me  of  his  behaving  with  propriety,  I  can  account  for  my 
self." 


120  EL   SUPREMO 

"Very  decent  of  you,  Gaspar,"  Dona  Juana  admitted. 
* '  I  can  account  for  him. ' ' 

"And  now/'  said  the  Dictator,  "as  I  have  constructively 
waived  any  objection  to  Don  Jose,  and  as  the  proverb  says, 
one  nasty  pill  is  enough  for  one  day,  suppose  you  tell  me 
precisely  whom  I  may  expect  to  encounter,  supposing  I 
come.  I  am  disposed  to  humour  you,  Godmother,  but  I 
ought  to  be  assured  that  I  will  not  be  put  in  too  difficult  a 
position.  Let  me  see  the  list  of  your  prospective  guests, 
before  I  accept." 

Dona  Juana  bridled  like  a  melodramatic  actress : 

"I  shall  do  no  such  thing,"  she  declared.  "You  are  no 
King,  or  Viceroy,  to  demand  a  list  of  my  guests  and  strike 
out  the  names  you  do  not  like.  I  have  told  you  I  mean  to 
have  everybody  worth  having.  You  know  what  that  means 
as  well  as  if  you  read  the  list.  Are  you  capable  of  so  much 
as  insinuating  to  me,  of  so  much  as  admitting  to  your 
secret  self,  that  you  are  going  to  demur  to  being  a  fellow 
guest  with  dear  old  Bernardo  Velasco,  or  compadre  Gre- 
gorio,  if  they  are  willing  to  greet  you ?  I'm  going  to  have 
Gregorio,  of  course,  and  all  his  former  colleagues,  and  all 
Bernardo's,  for  that  matter,  and  all  the  heroes  against  the 
invasion  and  other  ex-generals;  all  the  desirable  Creoles 
and  every  single  old  Spaniard.  I  hate  their  foolish  poli 
tics,  but  they  are  charming  socially  as  are  all  their  fam 
ilies." 

"As  you  have  specified,"  Francia  interrupted,  "nearly- 
all  the  people  I  might  be  supposed  not  to  wish  to  meet,  it 
seems  to  me" — Hawthorne  saw  his  eyes  twinkle — "that 
my  notion  of  going  over  your  list  was  not  such  a  bad 
one." 

"Surely,"  the  old  dowager  argued,  "you  can  let  bygones 
be  bygones,  if  they  can.  They  are  abased  and  you  are 
exalted.  If  they  can  pocket  their  defeat,  surely  you  can 
afford  to  forgive  their  past  opposition.  You  ought  not  to 
object  to  meeting  them." 

"I  did  not  say  I  objected,"  Francia  retorted,  with  the 
air  of  a  lawyer  leading  up  to  a  point,  "and  if  you  could 
guarantee  me  that  their  antagonism  is  wholly  of  the  past 
I  should  waive  them  all  as  readily  as  Don  Josl. 7 ' 

"I  can  warrant  you  that  for  the  hours  of  my  fiesta/9 
the  old  lady  asserted.  "So  your  hesitation  on  that  score 


THE   PYTHONESS  1211 

should  vanish,  and  your  idea  of  scrutinizing  my  list  evap 
orate  with  it." 

"Not  at  all,"  Francia  came  back  at  her.  "If  there  be  so 
much  potential  embarrassment  in  that  much  of  your  list, 
how  do  I  know  what  there  is  in  the  rest  of  it?" 

' '  Leave  all  that  to  me,  Gaspar, ' '  she  advised. 

Francia  was  smiling  maliciously,  Hawthorne  judged. 

* '  Am  I  to  be  prepared, ' '  he  enquired, ' '  to  meet  my  charm 
ing  cousins?" 

"All  the  Caballeros  will  be  there,  of  course,"  Dona  Juana 
informed  him. 

"None  of  them  objectionable  to  me,  not  even  Jerman," 
Francia  assured  her.  "I  was  not  thinking  of  my  cousins 
on  my  grandfather's  side,  but  of  my  grandmother's  clan." 

The  old  lady's  face  assumed  an  expression  of  contemptu 
ous  disgust. 

"Your  badinage,"  she  sneered,  "is  clumsy,  Gaspar.  I 
said  everybody  worth  meeting,  not  everybody  not  worth 
meeting.  Never  a  Eodriguez  has  set  foot  on  my  property, 
nor  ever  will ;  nor  any  Martinez  or  Benitez  or  Fernandez  or 
Gomez  or  Lopez  or  Mendez  or  Perez. ' ' 

Francia  bowed  ironically. 

"If  all  your  inclusions,"  he  bantered,  "show  as  much 
good  judgment  as  your  exclusions,  I  fancy  I  am  safe  in 
coming. ' ' 

Seiiora  Isquibel  instantly  took  the  other  tack. 

"If  you  come,"  she  said,  "you  must  stay— not  spoil  my 
festivity  by  leaving  in  a  huff. ' ' 

"No  danger,"  the  Dictator  said. 

"I  have  invited  Estanislao,"  she  ventured. 

"Ingratitude,"  Francia  said,  "injures  only  the  ingrate. 
He  should  have  nothing  against  me,  and  surely  I  nothing 
against  him." 

"And  Cayetano,"  she  added. 

"And,  of  course,  Petrona,"  Francia  deduced  placidly. 

"Of  course,"  Dona  Juana  confirmed. 

"Since  her  marriage,"  Francia  ruminated,  '  '  have 
never  spoken  to  Petrona,  and  seldom  seen  her  even  at  a  dis 
tance.  ' ' 

T '  But  you  will  come  ? "  she  pressed  him. 

"As  far  as  she  is  concerned,"  he  replied,  "I  have  no 
rancour  against  poor  Petrona." 


122  EL    SUPREMO 

' '  Valeriano  and  Segundo  will  be  there  also, ' '  slie  warned 
him. 

Francia  waved  a  hand. 

"I  make  no  demur,"  he  said. 

"And  I  want  you  to  promise,"  Dona  Isquibel  pursued, 
"not  only  to  come  but  to  be  gracious." 

"Can  you  imagine  me  gracious?"  he  bantered  her. 

' '  Nobody  more  so, ' '  she  declared, ' '  when  you  choose. ' ' 

"Well,"  Francia  said,  still  banteringly,  "I  pledge  myself 
to  be  as  gracious  as  I  know  how,  provided  that  I  come." 

"Still  conditions?"  she  queried. 

"Juana,"  he  said,  "you  ask  me  to  meet  nearly  all  the 
people  who  will  most  try  my  self-control  and  tax  my  pa 
tience.  I  agree  to  all  you  ask,  provided  you  invite  with  me 
my  official  family. ' ' 

"Not  Gumesindo?"  she  cried. 

"Why  should  you  boggle  at  Gumesindo/'  he  quizzed  her, 
' '  when  you  ask  me  to  accede  as  to  Estanislao  ? ' ' 

"Faugh!"  she  cried.  "I  loathe  Gumesindo  and  all  his 
tribe.  They  are  not  desirable  Creoles.  But  I  give  in.  You 
have  caught  me.  He  and  Policarpo  and  all — I'll  yield. 
I'll  invite  them  all." 

* '  Then  I  shall  come,  * '  Francia  finally  agreed. 

"And  be  affable,"  the  dowager  insisted,  "to  Jose  and 
all?" 

"Godmother,"  Francia  said,  with  a  charming  look  and 
intonation,  "I  do  not  do  anything  by  halves.  I  shall  do 
everything  in  my  power  to  make  your  festival  a  success. ' ' 

"That  is  the  way  to  talk!"  she  exclaimed.  "I  knew  I'd 
bring  you  round.  There  is  no  use  arguing  with  me ! " 

"Not  the  least  in  the  world,"  Francia  admitted  quizzi 
cally. 

"And  now,"  she  said,  rising,  "I  must  consult  you  on  a 
point  of  etiquette.  Do  I  make  my  obeisance  here  to  the 
Dictator,  and  retreat  in  good  order,  or  does  my  godson 
escort  me  to  my  horse  ? ' ' 

Francia  still  smiled  slyly. 

"We  all  escort  you  to  your  milk-white  palfrey,"  he  said. 

As  they  passed  the  length  of  the  patio,  Hawthorne  noticed 
a  handsome,  conceited-looking  Creole,  cocked  hat  in  hand, 
pacing  up  and  down  under  the  arcade  on  the  shady  side. 
He  wore  the  black  stockings,  knee-breeches,  and  waistcoat 


THE   PYTHONESS  123 

of  a  doctor  of  laws,  but  his  coat  was  that  of  a  lieutenant 
of  infantry — blue,  with  red  facings.  His  very  curly  hair 
was  neither  wigged  nor  powdered,  and  was  cut  fairly  short. 
Outside  they  found  a  negro  groom  holding  a  roan  mule, 
with  a  very  old  and  worn  saddle  showing  remains  of  a 
former  covering  of  red  plush;  a  tall  cream-coloured  mare, 
with  a  magnificent,  old-fashioned  Peninsular  saddle,  all 
green  velvet  and  silver  mountings ;  and  a  restive  blood-bay, 
girthed  with  a  new  pigskin  saddle  of  the  latest  French 
pattern. 

By  the  horses  the  old  lady  paused. 

"With  your  permission,"  she  said,  "111  speak  a  word  to 
Don  Guillermo,  I  mean  to  Guillermo,  for  I'm  not  going  to 
Don  him  any  more  than  Beltran." 
Francia  bowed. 

"Guillermo,  my  son,"  she  said  to  Hawthorne,  "I  want 
you  not  only  to  come  to  my  fiesta,  but  to  feel  at  home  in 
my  house.  For  that  you  must  make  its  acquaintance  by 
daylight,  So  come  out  as  soon  as  you  can  after  sunrise, 
before  the  day  warms  up,  go  over  the  place,  become  familiar 
with  it,  dine  with  us  and  take  your  siesta  at  my  house. 
Then  you  will  be  really  at  home  for  the  fiesta." 

Hawthorne  promised,  feeling  really  filial  to  the  old  lady 
already. 

Beltran  gave  his  grandmother  a  lift  up  and  she  rose  to 
her  saddle  springily  as  a  girl,  her  little  slipper  barely 
touching  his  interlocked  fingers. 

The  instant  he  was  astride  and  his  groom  loosed  his  hold 
on  the  bit,  Beltran 's  mount  began  not  only  to  prance  and 
curvet,  but  to  rear  and  buck.  Thereupon  Beltran  gave 
them  a  magnificent  exhibition  of  horsemanship.  The  stal 
lion's  behaviour  was  really  terrific,  the  rider  never  lost  his 
patience  or  temper,  did  nothing  theatrical  or  ostentatious, 
but  without  any  show  of  effort,  without  an  ungraceful 
movement  or  position,  first  allowed  his  mount  to  ^work  off 
some  of  his  venom  and  energy  and  then  wore  him  down 
to  obedience  and  curbed  him  to  decorum. 

As  the  three  cantered  off  the  Dictator,  who  had  watched 
the  contest  as  calmly  and  as  interestedly  as  Dona  Juana, 
remarked : 

"I  have  not,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  a  better  horse-master 
among  my  cavalry." 


124  EL   SUPREMO 

"Nor,"  Hawthorne  ventured  to  add,  "a  better  diplomat 
among  your  subjects." 

"Diplomat,"  Francia  exclaimed.  "She's  more  like  a 
bludgeon.  She  does  not  inveigle,  she  gives  orders." 

"Most  excellent  sir,"  Hawthorne  dared,  "you  demon 
strate  that  you  not  only  can  give  orders,  but  can  take 
them." 

"Humph!"  said  Francia.  "I  know  the  pythoness  that 
issues  them.  I  'd  as  soon  try  a  wrestling  match  in  the  wild 
woods  with  an  anaconda  or  a  boa-constrictor  as  oppose 
my  godmother.  Madrina  Juana  is  the  only  woman  in 
Paraguay  unafraid  of  me,  and  of  all  Paraguayans  none 
is  more  staunchly  loyal,  for  all  her  Castilian  blood 
and  birth,  to  republican  principles  or  to  my  administra 
tion."  fc 

*  *  Her  demeanour  towards  you,  most  excellent  sir, ' '  Haw 
thorne  went  on,  "reminds  me  of  what  I  have  heard  of  the 
attitude  of  Napoleon's  mother  to  her  imperial  son." 

Francia  was  plainly  flattered  by  the  comparison  and 
pleased  at  the  compliment. 

When  they  re-entered  the  courtyard  Hawthorne  noticed 
Basilio  Goyez,  utterly  forgotten,  patiently  pacing  up  and 
down  under  the  arcade.  Francia  noticed  him  also,  for 
Hawthorne  caught  the  barely  perceptible  alteration  in  his 
expression  which  betrayed  his  recognition.  No  change  of 
demeanour,  however,  indicated  that  the  Dictator  was  aware 
of  Basilio  Goyez's  existence. 

His  up-and-down  sentry-go,  it  so  happened,  at  the  mo 
ment  ^was  bringing  him  towards  the  entrance  so  that 
Francia  and  Hawthorne  came  opposite  him  about  the  mid 
dle  of  the  long  side  of  the  court. 

Basilio  Goyez,  respectfully  bowing,  enquired  whether  El 
Supremo  had  any  commands  for  him  and  whether  he  might 
be  permitted  to  hand  in  his  accounts  that  evening. 

Francia,  stiffening  visibly,  drawing  himself  up  to  his 
full  height,  fairly  vibrated  with  rage.  He  fixed  on  the 
miserable,  and  now  manifestly  trembling  Basilio,  a  cold 
stare  of  disapproval ;  and,  without  uttering  a  sound,  glared 
at  him  until  the  wretch  began  to  stammer  some  broken 
attempts  at  excuses. 

"Did  I  not  send  you  word  to  wait?"  Francia  snarled  at 
him. 


THE    PYTHONESS 

"Assuredly,  without  doubt,  Excelentisimo  Seiior,"  Goyez 
babbled. 

"Why,  then,"  Francia  demanded,  "did  you  not  wait 
until  I  sent  for  you?" 

"I  presumed/'  Basilio  began,  "that  your  Excellency 
might  have  orders  to  give." 

' ' The  curse  of  Paraguay, ' '  Francia  burst  out,  "is  to  be 
populated  by  dolts.  It  seems  that  there  is  no  native  in  all 
Paraguay  save  myself  that  is  not  a  fool.  Can  you  not 
comprehend  plain  Castilian  or  plain  Guarani  ?  Do  you  not 
understand  the  word  '  wait '  1  You  pay  me  a  fool 's  compli 
ment  when  you  permit  yourself  to  fancy  that  when  I  say 
'wait'  I  mean  interrupt.  Will  none  of  you  ever  learn 
that  when  I  give  a  command  I  mean  it  as  given?  I  use 
language  as  I  intend  it  to  be  understood  and  I  speak 
without  ambiguity.  'You  presumed.'  You  have  no  right 
to  presume.  I  was  made  Dictator  precisely  that  presuming 
and  supposing  and  imagining  should  cease  and  obedience 
take  their  place.  I  am  supreme  Dictator  and  the  rest  of 
you  are  not  to  behave  according  to  your  own  whims  and 
fancies,  but  to  accord  me  exact  and  scrupulous  obedience. 
I  am  weary  of  trying  to  teach  you.  Perhaps  you  can  learn 
from  meditation  since  instruction  fails  on  you.  You  'pre 
sumed  I  might  have  orders  to  give.'  I  have  one  order  to 
give.  May  it  teach  you  that  when  I  appointed  you  Minister 
of  Finance  and  Director  of  Customs  it  was  in  order  that 
you  might  execute  my  behests,  not  presume  to  forestall 
my  decisions  and  dictate  to  me  what  I  should  decide.  I 
have,  in  fact,  one  order  to  give.  You  shall  hear  it." 

Turning,  he  called: 

"Iturbe!" 

A  lieutenant  appeared  and  saluted. 

"Take  this  rascal  to  the  guardhouse,"  Francia  com 
manded.  "Keep  him  there  till  to-morrow  morning. 
Give  him  water  if  he  asks  for  it,  but  no  food.  Let  him 
go  at  sunrise.  He  may  meditate  till  dawn  and  reflect 
on  the  difference  between  presumption  and  subordina 
tion." 

Passing  on  up  the  patio  as  if  nothing  had  occurred,  he 
halted  by  his  chair. 

"Sit  down!"  he  exploded,  absent-mindedly. 

Hawthorne  seated   himself,  eyeing  the  Dictator  as  he 


126  EL   SUPREMO 

stood  by  his  table,  testily  tossing  the  papers  about  and  rum 
maging  among  them. 

Pie  slowly  sat  down  and  sighed. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "you  differ  from  all 
the  foreigners  who  have  arrived  at  Asuncion  in  my  time. 
The  ^  others  aimed,  often  greedily,  always  crudely,  at  en 
riching  themselves.  They  mostly  made  no  concealment  of 
their  intention  to  grow  rich  by  impoverishing  my  country 
men;  mostly  they  cynically  advertised  their  knavery. 

"You  alone  propose  to  enrich  Paraguay.  And  your 
proposition  is  most  plausible.  I  am  fascinated.  I  see  great 
possibilities.  I  could  spend  the  rest  of  the  day  in  conversa 
tion  with  you. 

"But  I  find  here  pressing  matters  of  routine  that  demand 
my  immediate  attention.  I  must  ask  you  to  terminate  this 
interview  and  resume  our  conference  later." 

Hawthorne  stood  up  and  bowed. 

"When  shall  I  return?"  he  asked. 

Francia,  also  on  his  feet,  queried : 

"Do  Americans  eat  as  much  as  Englishmen?" 

"That  I  could  not  say,"  Hawthorne  replied.  "But  I 
can  certify  that  they  do  not  eat  as  much  as  Paraguayans, 
if  I  may  judge  by  the  meals  I  shared  yesterday.  No  Ameri- 
can  would  so  much  as  think  of  such  a  supper,  after  such 
a  dinner." 

"Would  bread,  roast-pigeon,  wine  and  fruit  appear  suf 
ficient  supper  to  an  American?"  the  Dictator  asked. 

"About  enough,  in  general,"  Hawthorne  answered,  "and 
after  an  Asuncion  dinner,  fully  enough,  I  should  say." 

"Then,"  said  Francia,  "if  you  are  willing  to  do  penance, 
will  you  sup  with  me  here  at  eight  to-night?" 

"I  should  be  delighted!"  Hawthorne  affirmed  unaffect 
edly. 

"Suppose,"  the  Dictator  concluded,  "that  you  come  at 
half  after  seven,  if  you  can.  You  interest  me  greatly* 
Senor  Don  Guillermo." 


CONSPIRACY  127 


CHAPTER  XI 

CONSPIRACY 

AS  Hawthorne,  after  a  superabundant  dinner  and  a 
long  siesta,  approached  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop  rather 
early  in  the  declining  afternoon,  he  saw  under  the  portico 
a  chair  set  by  the  door  and  in  it  recognised  the  little  sur 
geon. 

Parlett  saluted  him  genially: 

"  They  're  all  here/'  he  said.  "Shop  full;  yard  full,  too. 
You  can  conspire  all  you  please  unless  you  hear  me  tune  up. 
Little  Bo  Peep  is  off  after  those  sheep." 

"Will  you  tell  me,"  Hawthorne  asked,  "why  there  are 
so  many  Bopis  in  Asuncion?" 

' '  That 's  easy, ' '  the  surgeon  replied.  "  It 's  because  there 
are  so  many  one-eyed  peons.  Bopi  means  one-eyed  in  Gua- 
rani." 

"But  why  are  there  so  many  one-eyed  peons?"  Haw 
thorne  persisted. 

"Any  Hebrew  blood  in  you?"  Parlett  queried. 

"No,"  Hawthorne  denied,  startled.     "Why?" 

"You  ask  questions  just  like  a  Jew,"  the  surgeon  ex 
plained. 

"Just  like  an  American,"  Hawthorne  corrected  him. 

"Consider  the  parenthesis  expunged  from  the  congres 
sional  record,"  Parlett  soothed  him.  "Returning  to  your 
query.  Infant  ophthalmia  is  very  general  among  the  natives 
here,  and  universal  among  the  negroes  and  mulattoes. 
Sore-eyed  babies  everywhere;  all  babies  with  sore  eyes. 
The  native  quacks  have  one  or  two  genuinely  valuable 
secrets,  mixed  up  with  their  barbarous  bleeding,  purging 
and  charm-chanting.  One  is  an  absolutely  effective  preven 
tive  of  suppuration.  If  I  could  learn  its  composition  I'd 
make  myself  famous.  I  can't  even  guess  whether  it  is  a 
mineral  solution  or  a  vegetable  infusion.  Anyhow,  it  cures 
boils,  pussy  wounds,  scald,  tetter,  and  sore  eyes. 

"Now  mark  the  folly  of  superstition.  The  dolts  tell  the 
mother  to  bathe  the  right  eye  with  the  wash.  That  always 
cures  the  right  eye.  Sometimes  the  left  eye  gets  well  of 
itself.  Often  the  cured  right  eye  goes  blind  from  sym- 


125  EL    SUPREMO 

pathy  with,  the  inflamed  left  eye.  But  there  is  a  large 
residuum  of  cases  where  the  result  is  a  one-eyed  victim  of 
supef  stition.  Hence  the  crop  of  Bopis. ' ' 

Inside  the  wine-house  Hawthorne  saw  rise  to  greet  him 
a  considerable  gathering. 

He  was  formally  presented  to  every  man  in  succession, 
but  caught  only  some  of  the  names. 

When  he  had  taken  the  chair  offered  him  and  the  others 
had  seated  themselves,  every  chair  and  every  cask,  box, 
petacon,  bale,  seron  and  tercio  available  as  a  seat  was  occu 
pied.  Dr.  Bargas,  as  before,  half  leaned,  half  sat,  this 
time  on  the  desk-top  of  his  open  bufete  between  the  doors. 

He  explained : 

"We  have  here,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  an  assemblage  in 
which  even  my  friend  the  renowned  Marquess  de  Torretagle 
de  Lima  might  deign  to  participate.  The  bluest  blood,  the 
greatest  wealth,  the  loftiest  intellects  of  Asuncion  are  here 
congregated  to  meet  you.  The  necessities  of  our  circum 
stances,  on  which  I  need  not  dilate,  make  it  imperative 
that  there  should  be  no  undue  appearance  of  crowding, 
in  case  some  unfriendly  intruder  should  thrust  himself 
among  us.  Therefore  a  full  half  of  the  company  will  listen 
from  my  inner  room  or  from  the  patio,  any  one  of  whom 
will  enter,  should  he  think  fit  to  express  his  opinions.  In 
which  case  I  will  present  him  to  you." 

During  this  speech  Hawthorne  surveyed  the  assembly. 

Most  of  them  held  tankards  or  goblets  of  wine. 

Perched  upon  tercios  of  mate,  Gfenerals  Zevallos,  Cabanas, 
Caballero  and  Gamarra,  clustered  about  the  titanic  Fulgen- 
eio  Yegros,  were  all  blue-coated  and  otherwise  clad  like 
him.  Grouped  in  chairs  about  the  lufete  sat  old  Velasco, 
and  several  doctors  of  law  in  black,  Padre  Bogarin,  brown- 
habited,  and  Don  Gregorio  in  drab.  The  rest  of  the  com 
pany  were  costumed  like  the  Mayorga  household  in  many- 
buttoned,  much-flapped  coats  of  vermilion,  scarlet,  crimson, 
claret-colour,  purple,  lavender,  plum-colour,  grass-green 
or  apple-green,  in  embroidered  waistcoats  and  satin  knee- 
breeches  of  equally  garish  hues,  always  sharply  contrasted 
with  each  other  and  with  the  wearer's  coat. 

Among  them  loomed  young  Don  Saturnine  Bedoya,  a 
singularly  commanding  presence,  as  gigantic  as  Yegros  in 
a  very  different  way.  For  while  full  seven  feet  tall,  he  was 


CONSPIRACY  129 

slender  though  plump,  and  notably  graceful,  in  a  startling 
costume  of  gold-brown  breeches,  orange  waistcoat  and 
lemon-yellow  coat. 

"You  have  here,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  Dr.  Bargas  con 
cluded,  "a  body  of  men  hating  tyranny,  resolute  to  throw 
it  off  by  any  possible  means,  hitherto  totally  at  a  loss  for 
any  workable  plan  of  action,  and  now  gathered  in  the  hope 
of  valuable  suggestions  from  you.  I  ask  for  silence  while 
you  repeat  to  these  gentlemen  the  purposes  I  have  already 
outlined  to  them  and  communicate  to  us  the  plans  you 
have  not  yet  had  an  opportunity  to  reveal." 

"Before  that  silence  is  accorded  and  those  plans  re 
vealed,"  a  clear,  self-confident  voice  interjected,  "I  wish 
to  be  heard  and  to  depart." 

There  stood  up  from  a  chair  by  the  casks  along  the 
west  wall  a  medium-sized  man  in  a  plum-coloured  coat. 
His  name  Hawthorne  remembered. 

Don  Prudencio  La  Guardia  continued: 

"We  have  been  invited  here  to-day  under  pledge  of 
secrecy,  allured  by  vague  hints  of  great  possibilities  of 
benefit  to  ourselves  and  our  country.  Once^  here  we  have 
been  told  we  are  to  meet  a  saviour,  a  foreigner  who  has 
come  of  his  own  accord  to  show  us  how  to  free  ourselves 
from  the  tyrant,  whom  I  have  not  hesitated  so  to  name  to 
his  face,  nor  openly  to  antagonise  at  every  public  oppor 
tunity.  I  have  remained  to  view  this  foreigner.  I  have 
viewed  him.  Don  Vicente,  his  host,  has  had  the  good 
sense  to  absent  himself  from  our  conventicle.  I  intend  to 
be  sensible  also.  I  speak  and  I  depart.  I  am  not  afraid 
of  our  supreme  Dictator  as  long  as  I  merely  oppose  him 
openly  and  legally,  acquiesce  promptly  and  completely 
when  not  sufficiently  supported  against  him  by  my  fellow 
citizens,  and  obey  to  the  letter  his  decrees  and  proclama 
tions,  which  are  the  law  of  the  land.  I  hate  him  enough  to 
join  early  and  zealously  to  further  any  promising  attempt 
to  overthrow  him.  But  I  see  no  promise  in  conspiracies. 
I  have  not  conspired  against  him,  I  do  not,  I  shall  not.  I 
go.  Before  I  go  I  wish  to  warn  you  all.  Have  you  so 
soon  forgotten  the  twenty-ninth  of  September,  five  years 
ago?  What  happened  on  that  day?  An  abortive  attempt 
to  overthrow  the  republic  and  re-establish  the  authority 
of  the  King  of  Spain  ?  In  appearance,  yes !  In  fact,  what  ? 


130  EL    SUPREMO 

What  but  the  springing  of  a  devilish  trap  by  which  this 
demon  destroyed  his  chief  personal  enemies?  Did  Padre 
Dalmacio  Taboada  preach  of  his  own  accord  reaction  and 
conspiracy  ?  Not  he.  Did  Don  Francisco  Guerreros,  cousin 
of  our  good  Sinforiano  here?  Did  the  other  colonels,  did 
General  Juan  Zavalla,  did  Don  Mariano  Mallada,  conspire 
of  their  own  volition?  Not  a  particle.  I  call  to  witness 
Don  Porfirio  Somellera  here.  He  knows.  It  was  all  a  trap 
of  that  fiend.  He  suborned  the  Catalan  Pablo  Martin  to 
insinuate  that  Don  Jerman's  troops  and  Don  Fulgencio's 
were  disloyal  to  them  and  ready  to  reproclaim  the  king. 
Martin  suggested  to  Don  Mariano  the  idea  of  seizing  the 
barrack  of  Don  Valeriano's  regiment;  egged  on  Padre  Dal 
macio  to  talk  over  the  Colonels,  and  reported  every  detail 
of  their  plans  to  that  spinach-eater.  They  thought  they 
were  rehoisting  the  royal  standard  forever  over  Paraguay ; 
believed,  poor  fools,  that  the  regiment  was  staunch  to  a 
man,  that  the  other  brigades  would  join  them  at  a  word. 
Actually  they  hoisted  the  red  and  yellow  ensign  over  a 
cuartel  where  half  the  privates  even  were  ready  to  turn 
on  them  on  a  signal,  at  an  instant  when  the  men  in  the 
other  barracks  were  ranked  in  the  patios,  muskets  loaded 
with  ball,  flints  picked,  bayonets  fixed,  cannon  rammed 
with  double  charges,  fuses  lit  and  all  ready.  Was  it  an 
insurrection,  a  revolt,  a  mutiny?  Was  it  even  a  riot  or 
a  fight  ?  It  was  merely  a  ten  minutes'  massacre,  a  ridiculous 
tragedy,  a  hideous  farce.  Padre  Taboada  was  spared 
because  he  knew  nothing  except  that  he  had  acted  upon 
the  suggestions  of  Lieutenant  Martin.  But  Colonel  Guer 
reros,  General  Zavalla,  General  Mallada,  all  perished  in 
the  slaughter.  Lieutenant  Martin  was  opportunely  shot  in 
the  back.  The  great  spider  who  had  entangled  them  in 
his  web  was  glutted  with  victims.  Their  confiscated  prop 
erty  filled  his  coffers.  As  Martin  was  conveniently  dead 
there  was  no  one  to  claim  a  reward  or  tattle  in  his  cups." 

"You  go  too  fast,"  Don  Jerman  Caballero  broke  in. 
"That  was  a  real  attempt  at  a  counter-revolution,  however 
advantageously  it  ended  for  Francia.  My  troops  were 
ready,  as  you  say,  but  ready  to  join  it.  Had  I  not,  I  regret, 
succeeded  in  recalling  them  to  what  I  believed  their  duty, 
the  revolution  would  have  succeeded." 

"You  were  a  dupe  too,"  Don  Porfirio  Somellera  inter- 


CONSPIRACY     *  131 

rupted.  "Inveigling  you  into  making  that  speech  was 
part  of  the  plot. ' ' 

"Of  course  it  was,"  La  Guardia  continued.  "Run  over 
in  your  mind  the  origins  and  results  of  the  attempt  of  the 
twenty-ninth  of  September.  Apply  that  to  your  situation. 
You  see  before  you  liberation,  liberty,  security;  I  see  the 
prison,  the  dungeon,  fetters,  torture  and  the  grave.  You 
think  yourselves  conspiring  in  secret ;  taking  a  risk  perhaps, 
but  a  risk  that  may  lead  you  to  prosperity.  I  tell  you 
every  word  you  utter  will  be  accurately  reported  to  the 
despot.  This  is  a  trap  of  his,  as  the  pretended  counter 
revolution,  whatever  Don  Jerman  says,  was  a  trap  of  his. 
His  coffers  are  empty.  Your  property  will  fill  them.  He 
feels  himself  insecure  in  his  curule  chair.  Your  removal 
will  strengthen  his  hold  on  the  country.  It  is  so  obvious, 
yet  you  will  not  see  it.  He  wishes  to  destroy  you.  He 
enlists  the  services  of  a  smooth-tongued  outlander.  You 
have  assembled  to  acclaim  a  liberator,  a  bringer  of  all  the 
skill  and  vigour  of  the  northern  races.  I  see  a  spy,  a  hired 
tool  of  the  despot's.  I  warn  you,  and  I  go.  And  I  ask 
every  man  who  has  sense  to  go  with  me." 

He  bowed  ceremoniously  and  gazed  about  the  room. 

Not  a  man  moved. 

"You  were  christened  Prudencio,"  spoke  up  Don  Larios 
Galvan,  a  bony  little  notary  seated  next  Don  Gregorio. 

"La  Guardia  guards  himself,  according  to  his  name," 
said  Don  Jacinto  Ruiz,  a  fat  notary  who  sat  by  Don  Ber 
nardo.  Don  Gregorio  rose  and  said. 

"Gentlemen,  I  have  the  profoundest  confidence  in  Don 
Guillermo  here.  I  request  that  any  man  who  agrees  with 
our  good  Prudencio  join  him  at  once." 

No  one  stirred. 

"Vaya,  listed  con  Dios,  hermano!"  said  Dr.  Bargas. 

Don  Prudencio  bowed  again  and  went  out. 

Nearly  every  man  in  the  gathering  raised  his  goblet  or 
tankard  to  his  lips. 

"Let  us  drink,"  called  that  giant  canary,  Don  Saturnino 
Bedoya,  "to  our  better  acquaintance  with  Don  Guillermo 
Atorno. ' ' 

All  drank,  a  mere  swallow  apiece,  Hawthorne  noticed,  as 
he  acknowledged  the  toast;  Dr.  Bargas  hastening  to  fill  a 
goblet  for  him. 


132  EL   SUPREMO 

"We  listen, "  said  Don  Fernando  de  la  Mora,  shifting  an 
obviously  gouty  foot. 

Hawthorne  saw  every  face  turned  to  his,  saw  the  doors 
full  of  eager  listeners. 

' '  Gentlemen, ' '  he  said,  ' '  I  am  much  moved  by  your  con 
fidence  in  a  stranger  who  might  be  all  Don  Prudencio  in 
sinuates.  ' ' 

"You  may  pass  over  the  compliments,"  said  Don  Plu- 
tarco  Bedoya,  the  elder  brother  of  the  handsome  giant,  a 
black-clad  doctor  of  laws.  "We  have  all  either  read  or 
heard  of  the  letters  you  brought  Vicente  and  Jenofonte. 
Perrichon  is  neither  tool  nor  dupe  of  Francia's.  Candioti 
makes  no  mistakes.  We  all  trust  them  and  you.  We  have 
all  heard  of  what  you  said  here  yesterday.  We  want  to 
hear  your  proposals." 

"Briefly,"  said  Hawthorne,  "I  propose  that  we  organise 
a  revolutionary  government,  appoint  a  president,  ministers 
of  finance,  war  and  justice,  and  choose  a  place  for  an  in 
surrectionary  capital  and  base  of  operations;  that  deliber 
ately  and  with  dependable  precautions  of  secrecy  the  finance 
minister  gather  from  all  who  join  us  contributions  of  money 
or  bullion  up  to  their  ability  according  to  their  inclination ; 
that  the  war  minister  take  a  secret  census  of  all  weapons 
in  the  hands  of  our  sympathisers ;  that,  when  we  are  ready 
and  no  sooner  we  assemble  at  whatever  place  has  been 
selected,  manufacture  gunpowder,  cast  cannon,  and  pro 
claim  a  revolt.  Our  high-spirited  adherents,  all  skilled  in 
the  use  of  arms,  will  be  effective  soldiers  at  once.  I  have  no 
doubt  of  success." 

"Only  demigods  could  carry  out  such  a  plan,"  spoke 
Sinforiano  Guerreros,  his  shoulders  drooping  in  his  blue 
uniform. 

"And  what  were  the  refugees  of  Covadonga  but  demi 
gods  ? ' *  Hawthorne  came  back  at  him.  ' l  What  but  a  demi 
god  was  Don  Ruy  Diaz  de  Bivar,  El  Cid  Campeador? 
What  but  demigods  were  the  knights  of  Compostella,  of 
Alcantara  and  Calatrava?  Were  not  Solis,  Mendoza  and 
Irala  as  much  demigods  as  Columbus  and  Pizarro?  You 
come  of  a  race  of  heroes;  dare  to  be  such  as  your  fa 
thers!" 

"Ah,"  sighed  Don  Bermudo  Larreta,  a  man  totally  bald, 
though  not  old  in  appearance.  "We  are  degenerates;  we 


CONSPIRACY  133 

hate  and  we  cringe.  "We  are  not  capable  of  wonders  like 
you  Americanos,  who  threw  off  the  yoke  of  mighty  England 
and  remain  free  from  her  and  free  of  any  tyrant  from 
among  yourselves.  The  yoke  of  Spain  dropped  off  us  with 
out  any  effort  on  our  part;  the  yoke  of  Porteno  arrogance 
we  escaped  by  the  grace  of  God,  only  to  saddle  upon  us 
a  servitude  more  galling  than  either." 

"Are  the  men  of  Buenos  Aires,"  said  Hawthorne,  "the 
Portenos  you  despise,  better  men  than  you  ?  They  cast  off 
the  yoke  of  Spain.  Twice  they  drove  out  the  veteran  troops 
of  mighty  England.  You  crushed  the  Porteno  invasion  not 
only  by  the  grace  of  God  but  by  force  of  arms.  The  heroes 
of  Paraguary,  of  Tacuari  were  no  less  demigods  than  the 
men  of  Covadonga.  With  such  heroes  among  you  what  I 
outline  should  be  well  within  our  powers. ' ' 

Then  spoke  General  Jerman  Caballero. 

*  *  Not  one  of  us  has  thought  of  such  a  plan.  I  give  you, 
Sefior  Don  Guillermo,  all  the  credit  for  the  thought,  ad 
mitting  it  to  possess  the  value  you  attribute  to  it.  Now 
supposing  that  we  adopt  your  plan,  having  it  from  you, 
supposing  us  capable  of  carrying  to  a  successful  issue,  what 
do  you  conceive  as  the  advantage  to  us  from  your  presence 
among  us  a  fellow-conspirator  and  helper?" 

At  this  moment  Parlett  was  distinctly  heard  to  whistle, 
hum  and  begin  to  sing  his  warning  air.  Hardly  had  the 
first  bars  of  Little  Bo  Peep  sounded  through  the  warehouse 
when  everybody  assumed  an  air  of  elaborate  lack  of  in 
terest  in  Hawthorne  and  each  couple  or  group  began  a 
laborious  and  deliberate  local  conversation,  or  devoted 
themselves  individually  to  sipping  wine. 

There  appeared  in  the  doorway  a  brisk  little  man  wearing 
a  plain  black  cocked  hat,  sober  grey  clothes,  with  mother-of- 
pearl  knee  and  shoe  buckles,  and  a  short  hanger. 

A  chorus  greeted  him  as  he  bowed  and  smiled  all  round 
the  room. 

Hawthorne  observed  him  with  interest,  for  since  he  had 
reached  Asuncion,  except  when  the  Dictator  had  called  his 
lieutenants,  this  was  the  first  decently  clad  man  he  had 
heard  addressed  otherwise  than  as  "Don,"  and  the  first  he 
had  heard  spoken  to  by  his  last  name. 

"Well,  Orrego,"  said  Dr.  Bargas,  "what  can  I  do  tor 
you?" 


134  EL    SUPREMO 


"I  come/'  Orrego  replied,  "to  test  those  eleven  tercios 
of  mate  you  bought  of  Pablo  Carbonel  yesterday." 

"Certainly,"  said  the  Doctor,  waving  a  hand.  "But 
have  a  mouthful  of  wine  first." 

He  went  down  on  his  knee  by  the  cask.  Then,  as  Orrego 
bowed  all  round  the  room  and  drank,  Dr.  Bargas  bantered 
him. 

' '  Did  you  forget  your  calador  this  time  also  ? ' ' 

"No,  not  this  time,"  said  Orrego;  "here  it  is  all 
right." 

He  displayed,  holding  it  by  a  handle  much  like  a  sabre- 
hilt,  a  long,  sharp-pointed,  tapering  steel  tube,  open  all 
down  one  side,  and  with  the  edges  of  the  slot  sharp  as 
razors. 

The  generals  abruptly  rose  and  sought  other  roosting 
places. 

Orrego  approached  the  pile  of  bales  on  which  they  had 
sat,  Bargas  at  his  elbow,  indicating  the  eleven. 

"He,"  Don  Porfirio  Somellera  explained  to  Hawthorne, 
t '  is  the  chief  reconocidor  of  the  custom-house. 

"He  tests  all  mate,  or  tobacco,  exported  or  imported." 

Orrego  verified  the  marks  on  the  tercios,  checking  each 
off  in  his  little  book,  and  then  plunged  his  calador  into 
one,  screwed  it  round  and  withdrew  it.  Tapping  the  tube 
above  a  sheet  of  paper,  he  folded  the  sheet  over  the  powder 
that  fell  out,  and  so  proceeded  with  the  other  bales,  finally 
pocketing  the  eleven  little  sample  packets. 

Then  he  picked  up  his  tankard  from  the  table,  bowed 
again  to  the  company,  drained  it,  and  bustled  out. 

"One  of  the  Dictator's  chief  spies,"  whispered  Don  Por 
firio  to  Hawthorne. 

"Shall  I  now  answer  your  question,  Senor  Don  Jer- 
man?"  Hawthorne  asked  Caballero. 

"By  all  means,"  the  general  bowed,  as  with  the  others 
he  reseated  himself  on  the  tested  tercios. 

"How  many  of  you,"  Hawthorne  queried,  "know  how 
to  repair  a  musket  or  pistol  or  to  reset  a  flint  ? ' ' 

No  one  spoke. 

"Who  among  you,"  he  proceeded,  "can  smelt  iron-ore, 
make  horse-shoes,  produce  good  steel,  forge  knives,  swords 
or  bayonets?" 

Not  a  word  replied. 


CONSPIRACY 


135 


"  Which  of  you,"  he -continued,  "can  bore  a  spiked  can 
non  ?" 

Silence  reigned. 

"Can  any  of  you,"  he  went  on,  "cast  cannon  and  make 
gunpowder  ? ' ' 

All  were  mute. 

"I,"  said  Hawthorne,  "am  expert  in  all  those  arts." 

"We  recognise  the  value,"  up  spoke  Don  Hilarion  De- 
coud,  a  doctor  of  laws,  "of  a  man  so  variously  skilled  in 
such  an  attempt  as  you  propose.  But  these  matters  relate 
to  the  materials  required  for  the  plan.  Observe,  I  am  not 
opposing  you,  nor  lukewarm  towards  you,  Senor  Don  Guil- 
lermo,  but  what  help  may  we  especially  expect  from  you, 
help  which  no  one  of  us  could  lend,  in  the  furtherance  of 
the  plan  itself?" 

"I  am  in  Paraguay,"  said  Hawthorne,  "ostensibly  to 
exploit  the  mate  industry  for  my  own  profit,  through  the 
enrichment  of  Paraguay  by  the  introduction  of  new  and 
improved  methods  throughout  all  stages  of  the  produc 
tion,  collection,  preparation  and  export.  I  have  already 
interested  the  Dictator  in  my  schemes.  If  I  succeed  in 
winning  his  favour  as  I  anticipate  I  shall  be  accorded  every 
opportunity  to  familiarise  myself  with  every  part  of  your 
country  and  especially  with  the  neighbourhood  of  the' 
capital.  Incidentally,  I  shall  of  course  note  the  military 
value  of  every  rise  of  ground,  range  of  hills,  hill,  stream 
and  ford.  I  cannot  help  so  doing,  for  my  experience  with 
General  San  Martin  in  Cuyo  and  General  Bolivar  in 
Granada  has  made  valuation  of  the  features  of  a  country 
an  instinct  with  me.  Thus  I  can  supplement  invaluably 
your  own  judgments  as  to  the  best  base  of  operations  for 
us,  best  lines  of  defence  in  the  early  stages  of  our  opera 
tions,  and  best  line  of  attack  later  on.  As  it  is  usual  for 
Americans  to  interest  themselves  in  all  forms  of  profit- 
getting  I  can  quite  naturally  take  up  any  opportunity 
that  offers.  I  am  told  that  iron  is  abundant  about  Ibicuy 
and  Caapucu.  I  might  start  a  mine  and  set  up  smelting 
works,  as  I  hear  that  the  iron  for  your  horse-shoes  is  all 
imported  into  Paraguay  and  none  produced  here  and  is 
very  high  in  price.  Thus  smelting  iron  would  be  profitable 
at  once.  The  profits  could  be  turned  into  our  fund  in 
charge  of  the  finance  minister.  A  full  two-thirds  of  the 


136  EL   SUPREMO 

iron  smelted  might  be  easily  concealed  until  we  had  a  store 
sufficient  to  cast  cannon. 

"Of  course,  I  know  we  should  have  bronze  for  field- 
pieces,  but  on  the  one  hand  that  is  unthinkable,  and,  on  the 
other,  I  know  how  to  cast  iron  cannon  almost  as  good  as  the 
best  bronze  cannon  ever  made,  for  the  secret  has  been  com 
municated  to  me  by  its  discoverer,  a  Massachusetts  in 
ventor. 

' l  However,  what  I  hear  of  the  country  between  here  and 
these  iron-fields  leads  me  to  conjecture  that  no  good  natural 
line  of  defence  exists  there  to  help  us  repulse  the  first  rush 
of  the  Dictator's  troops  before  their  loss  of  confidence  and 
our  gain  of  confidence  puts  us  on  an  equality  after  the 
first  encounter." 

"Wonderful!"  ecstatically  exclaimed  Don  Cipriano  Do- 
meque. 

And  Valeriano  Zevallos  interjected: 

1  i  It  is  true.  There  are  no  natural  obstacles  between  here 
and  Caapucu.  The  hills  and  streams  give  no  strategic  ad 
vantage  in  either  direction." 

"Such  being  the  case,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "we 
might  open  a  mine  and  smelter  at  Atira,  where  I  hear  iron 
is  found,  and  between  which  and  Asuncion  there  is  a  strong 
line  of  natural  defences." 

"That  is  entirely  true,"  General  Zevallos  put  in. 

"Thus,"  Hawthorne  summed  up,  "I  conceive  I  can  be 
of  use,  at  every  stage  of  the  enterprise,  in  ways  no  Para 
guayan  could  emulate." 

"Which  is  manifestly  the  fact,"  Don  Bernardo  ad 
mitted  in  a  tone  of  benediction. 

"Furthermore,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "observe  that 
any  sort  of  investigation  in  any  part  of  the  country,  any 
amount  of  riding  about,  surveying,  measuring  and  mapping, 
any  sort  and  number  of  questions  about  food  supply,  water, 
cattle,  horses,  timber  and  minerals  will  come  quite  naturally 
from  a  promoter  like  myself  and  excite  no  suspicion,  while 
any  such  activities  on  the  part  of  any  Paraguayan  would 
result  in  his  instant  incarceration." 

"Obviously  true,"  ejaculated  Don  Hilarion. 

* '  More  than  that, ' '  Hawthorne  wound  up, ' '  and  similarly 
beyond  possibility  for  any  native  here,  I  expect  to  induce 
the  Dictator  to  welcome  my  advice  to  such  an  extent  that  he 


CONSPIRACY  137 

will  give  me  free  access  to  his  prisons  and  barracks.  I  may 
do  much  in  obtaining  alleviations  or  even  release  for  mem 
bers  of  our  party,  if  imprisoned,  and  may  go  far  in  dis 
covering  any  differences  of  temper  among  the  regiments, 
which  knowledge  might  be  of  use  in  battle." 

'  *  Marvellous ! ' '  cried  Don  Cipriano  Domeque. 

"How,"  Don  Hilarion  queried,  "do  you  expect  to  ac 
quire  such  influence  with  our  stern  and  unapproachable 
Dictator?" 

"I  could  not  describe  just  how,"  Hawthorne  answered 
confidently,  "but  I  have  made  a  good  beginning.  I  called 
on  him  this  morning  for  the  first  time.  We  were  much 
interrupted,  and  he  asked  me  to  cut  short  the  interview, 
under  plea  of  pressure  of  business.  Yet  my  brief  outline  of 
my  projects  relating  to  yerba  so  impressed  him  that  he 
invited  me  to  sup  with  him  to-night. ' ' 

At  this  General  Gamarra  burst  out : 

' '  I  begin  to  doubt  but  Prudencio  was  right !  This  smells 
like  a  trap !  Are  we  to  believe  that  this  is  really  a  stranger, 
unknown  to  the  Dictator  until  to-day  ?  Does  not  this  sound 
as  if  he  were  a  confidant,  masquerading  as  a  revolutionist 
to  ensnare  us?" 

' '  Absurd,  Eogelio ! ' '  Don  Gregorio  retorted.  ' '  Have  you 
not  seen  Candioti's  letter,  and  Perrichon 's  ? " 

"Can  any  one  credit,"  Gamarra  persisted,  "that  a  total 
stranger  could  so  captivate  in  one  morning  our  unsocial 
Dictator?" 

"What  wonder,"  interposed  Don  Cipriano  Domeque, 
"if  he  talked  yerba  to  the  Dictator  as  he  has  talked  insur 
rection  to  us  ?  We  have  gloomed  in  impotent  hate,  we,  his 
countrymen,  natives  of  this  Paraguay.  Behold  this  north 
erner,  not  yet  two  days  in  Asuncion,  indicates  to  us  re 
sources  of  resistance  any  one  of  us  might  have  seen ;  strate 
gic  points  any  one  of  us  might  have  noticed ;  matters  every 
one  of  us  ought  to  have  perceived  always;  makes  us  feel 
it  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  us  to  take  advan 
tage  of  them;  raises  before  our  eyes  such  pictures  of  or 
ganisation,  victory  and  success  that  we  feel  them  already 
as  realities!  I  believe  in  him.  I  can  comprehend  how 
Francia  would  be  as  fascinated  by  prospects  of  revenue 
as  we  by  hope  of  liberty." 

Dr.  Bargas  added: 


138  EL    SUPREMO 

"I  call  on  any  man  who  does  not  trust  Don  Guillermo 
Atorno  instantly  to  leave  my  premises." 

No  man  stirred,  and  many  voices  chorused: 

"We  believe  in  him." 

' '  I  also  believe, ' '  said  a  man  in  a  violet  velvet  coat,  push 
ing  in  from  the  bedroom,  "but  I  want  to  ask  questions." 

' '  Don  Mauricio  Zelaya, ' '  Dr.  Bargas  introduced  him,  * '  is 
one  of  our  richest  ship-owners." 

"What  I  wish  to  know,"  said  Don  Mauricio,  "is  how 
you,  never  having  been  in  our  country,  made  up  your 
mind  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  old  Spaniards  against  a 
Creole?  Your  nation  broke  away  from  the  King  of  Eng 
land  and  maintains  an  independent  government;  I  should 
have  imagined  that  a  native  of  your  country  would  side 
with  Creoles  against  Spaniards!" 

"I  conceived  of  the  situation,"  Hawthorne  said,  "not  as 
oppression  of  Spaniards  by  a  Creole,  but  of  all  respectable 
citizens  by  a  tyrant.  I  had  and  I  have  no  idea  of  assisting 
in  any  way  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  King  of  Spain 
in  Paraguay,  having  fought  that  power  zealously  in  Cuyo 
and  Granada.  But  I  conceive  that  the  re-establishment 
here  of  the  power  of  Spain,  if  it  ever  comes  about,  is  no 
present  question  for  us;  if  it  results  from  anything  I  or 
you  do  it  will  be  in  ways  none  of  us  can  foresee.  The  popu 
lation  of  Paraguay,  I  take  it,  would  permit  no  body  of 
Paraguayans  to  reproclaim  Paraguay 's  reunion  with  Spain 
and  allegiance  to  Spain 's  king.  I  believe  that  a  very  small 
body  of  Paraguayans  may  bring  to  pass  the  extirpation  of 
despotism  in  Paraguay  and  the  establishment  of  a  just 
government  here. ' ' 

"Considering  my  first  question  disposed  of,"  Don  Mauri 
cio  pursued,  "I  have  another.  How  did  you  conclude,  at 
a  distance,  knowing  the  unreliability  of  rumours,  that  the 
Dictator  is  a  tyrant  who  ought  to  be  overthrown,  and  we 
oppressed  citizens  worthy  of  your  risking  your  life  for  us  ?  " 

"That  is  really  three  questions,"  Hawthorne  replied. 
"I  did  infer  him  a  despot  and  you  oppressed.  I  find  I  am 
right.  I  have  yet  to  make  up  my  mind  whether  he  merits 
downfall  and  you  deserve  liberty. ' ' 

1 '  This  is  monstrous ! ' '  broke  in  Gamarra.  ' '  You  have  not 
yet  made  up  your  mind  and  you  ask  us  to  risk  our  lives!" 

"I  am  risking  my  life  now,"  Hawthorne  reminded  him 


CONSPIRACY  139 

calmly,  "by  conferring  with  you  all  here.  You  risk  yours 
no  more  than  I.  "What  I  intend  myself  and  what  I  propose 
to  you  is  this.  Organise  an  insurrectionary  government  as 
I  have  outlined.  Meanwhile  I  will  study  Paraguay  and 
its  Dictator.  I  may  find  him  such  a  tyrant  that  any  con 
ceivable  substitute  government  would  be  an  improvement. 
What  I  saw  of  him  this  morning  partly  inclines  me  that 
way  already.  I  may  hesitate,  as  his  character  is  so  com 
plicated  and  contradictory.  In  that  case  my  decision  will 
depend  upon  you.  If  you  show  yourselves  capable  of  effec 
tual  organisation  without  blunders  or  squabbles  you  will 
have  proved  yourselves  more  worthy  to  rule  Paraguay. 
Lastly  I  may  decide  that  with  all  his  faults  he  is  the  best 
government  Paraguay  is  capable  of  producing. 

"In  that  last  case  you  will  be  no  worse  off.  We  are  all 
pledged  to  secrecy;  oaths  are  superfluous  between  gentle 
men.  I  shall  do  what  I  can  to  enrich  myself  here  by  fur 
thering  industries.  Your  finance-minister  and  war-minister 
will  destroy  their  papers,  and  the  projected  insurrection 
will  evaporate/' 

"This  is  unbearable!  ridiculous!"  Gamarra  shouted. 
"This  is  insulting!  This  is  unendurable!" 

"Be  silent,  Rogelio,"  Don  Gregorio  admonished  him. 
"We  elders  do  not  resent  what  we  all  deserve.  An  out 
sider  sees  not  only  opportunities  we  ignore,  but  the  faults 
that  hamper  us." 

"For  my  part,"  said  Don  Hilarion,  "I  think  he  talks 
sense." 

'  *  I  have  a  third  question, ' '  Don  Mauricio  put  in  quietly, 
"or  a  fifth,  by  your  count.  What  do  you  expect  to  gain  for 
yourself  by  assisting  us,  supposing  we  succeed?" 

"Nothing,"  said  Hawthorne,  "except  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  I  have  used  my  powers  according  to  my  oppor 
tunities  for  the  benefit  of  my  fellow  men." 

"Pardon  me,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo,"  said  Don  Fernando 
de  la  Mora.  "You  speak  sincerely,  no  doubt.  But  do  you 
not  really  anticipate,  deep  in  your  heart,  that  you  will  be 
finally  selected  chief  magistrate  of  Paraguay  if  your  plan 
succeeds  ? ' ' 

"I  do  not!"  Hawthorne  disclaimed  vigorously.  "I 
think  it  altogether  improper  that  any  but  natives  rule  any 
land.  It  may  be  found  advisable  during  the  fighting  to 


140  EL   SUPREMO 

appoint  me  to  some  military  command,  which  I  shall  In 
stantly  resign  at  the  establishment  of  peace.  But  at  no  time 
will  I  accept  any  civil  office.  In  fact,  I  think  I  should  be 
absent  from  all  your  deliberations,  except  full  meetings  of 
our  association,  and  in  them  I  should  have  no  vote.  Liberty 
for  Paraguay  must  be  won  by  Paraguayans.  And  when 
liberty  is  won  I  depart,  unless  I  prefer  to  remain  as  a 
simple  merchant." 

"This  is  unbelievable!"  bawled  Gamarra.  "This  is  a 
clumsy  bait." 

"For  shame,  Rogelio!"  Don  Bernardo  admonished  him. 
"May  not  any  countryman  of  the  great-souled  Don  Jorge 
"Washington  be  such  a  man  as  Don  Jorge  ? ' ' 

"You  do  not  need,"  Hawthorne  said  with  dignity,  "to 
cite  niy  country  or  my  greatest  countryman.  South  Amer 
ica  has  produced  such  men  as  I  aim  to  emulate.  General 
San  Martin  is  such  a  man  as  I  endeavour  to  be." 

Hereupon  rose  a  tumultuous  discussion,  in  the  course  of 
which  Gamarra  was  made  to  appear  a  minority  of  one,  and 
himself  half-hearted  at  that. 

Dr.  Bargas  and  Don  Gregorio  called  a  vote  on  Haw 
thorne  's  proposal.  After  a  long  argument,  in  which  Haw 
thorne  took  no  part,  it  was  accepted,  the  acceptance  made 
unanimous,  and  the  affirmation  endorsed  by  acclamation  by 
those  in  the  inner  room  and  yard. 

"I'll  stand  by  the  rest  of  you,"  Colonel  Guerreros  de 
clared.  "But  I  think  it  would  be  far  better  to  sound  the 
troops,  seize  a  barrack,  and  master  the  city  at  once." 

"Pooh!  Sinf or iano, "  General  Cabanas  retorted.  "Mal- 
lada  tried  that  once.  Once  is  enough." 

"I  want  to  ask,"  Yegros  enunciated  slowly,  with  that 
goggling  expression  which  made  his  porcine  face  appear 
almost  froglike,  "what  the  minister  of  justice  is  for?" 

"To  decide  disputes,"  Hawthorne  explained,  "if  any 
occur. ' ' 

' '  Don 't  see  any  use  for  one, ' '  Yegros  declared. 

But  several  voices  called: 

"You  never  see  anything,  Fulgencio,  except  a  mark  for 
a  bullet  or  sabre!" 

"It  is  then  decided!"  Don  Gregorio  summed  up,  "that 
we  all  approve  Don  Guillermo's  ideas  as  the  best  plan,  and 
that  we  pledge  ourselves  to  consider  it  individually  and  in 


CONSPIRACY  141 

groups  and  to  adopt  it  or  reject  it  at  our  next  meeting?" 

After  a  general  affirmation,  he  said: 

"This  then  is  the  outcome." 

"The  outcome,"  spoke  a  voice  from  the  door  into  the 
patio,  "may  be  very  different." 

Hawthorne  started  at  the  voice,  glanced  at  the  speaker, 
and  sat  petrified. 

His  thunderstruck  amazement  subtly  communicated  a 
sense  of  alarm  to  all  present. 

All  eyes  followed  his  stare  at  the  door. 

There  was  a  general  cackle  of  dry  laughter. 

"You  took  him  for  El  Supremo  in  person,"  said  Don 
Jerman.  "Not  unnaturally.  Like  me  also  he  has  the 
Caballero  nose!" 

"Allow  me,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  said  Dr.  Bargas, 
"to  present  to  you  Don  Estanislao  Machain." 

Hawthorne  stared  at  the  dry,  spare  figure  in  pearl  grey, 
astonished  to  find  among  the  conspirators  the  man  Francia 
had  saved  from  penury,  still  more  amazed  at  his  resem 
blance  in  tone  and  profile  to  his  exalted  cousin. 

' '  If  you  listen  to  me, ' '  Machain  said,  * '  the  outcome  may 
be  easier  attained  and  simpler." 

"We  all  know  your  only  plan,  Estanislao,"  Padre  Bo- 
garin  said,  * '  and  while  some  of  us  might  approve,  it  would 
be  only  as  a  last  resort." 

The  chorus  of  voices  echoed  Padre  Lisardo's  view. 

After  some  more  discussion  of  detail  Don  Bernardo  said : 

"We  are  to  be  neither  Spaniards  nor  Creoles,  but  all 
Paraguayans.  Word  will  be  passed  when  we  next  meet. 
Then  we  shall  choose  whether  to  adopt  this  plan  or  reject 
it  and  Don  Guillermo 's  help.  If  we  adopt  it  we  shall  eleet 
officers  and  proceed  to  carry  it  out. ' ' 


BOOKII 
JPECILIA 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  LIBRARY 

AT  the  entrance  to  the  Government  House  Hawthorne 
found  Francia's  Bopi  squatting  by  the  wall  chatting 
with  the  guard,  saw  him  rise  at  sight  of  him  and  under 
stood  him  to  say  in  Guarani: 

"Baeh!    Pico!"     ("This  is  the  man.") 

Admitted  by  the  guard,  he  was  conducted  across  the 
patio,  through  a  largish  paved  passage-way,  into  a  garden 
shaded  by  many  orange-trees,  shut  in  on  three  sides  by  the 
Palacio  and  adjuncts  of  it,  opening  on  the  fourth  north 
westward  upon  that  broadish  inlet-lagoon  which  he  had, 
when  he  landed  two  days  before,  noticed  sprawling  south 
west  of  the  old  Jesuits'  bridge  by  the  landing  stairs. 

Under  the  orange  trees  the  Dictator  was  pacing,  his 
sabre-sheath  slapping  his  calves.  He  was  bare-headed  and 
instead  of  coat  and  waistcoat  wore  over  his  plain-frilled 
shirt  only  a  flowered  dressing-gown  of  the  cheapest  calico. 

He  greeted  Hawthorne  cordially  and  heartily,  entirely 
as  an  equal  and  much  as  a  trusted  intimate,  with  a  very 
engaging  demeanour  and  every  appearance  of  pleasure,  and 
offered  him  snuff  in  a  manner  as  courtly  as  Don  Vicente's 
own. 

"We  sup  out  here,'7  he  said.  "For  I  have  heard  that  I 
share  with  your  countrymen,  as  with  the  English,  a  dislike 
of  stuffy  rooms  and  a  love  of  fresh  air.  But  Cosme  is  late 
with  supper,  as  usual.  Before  it  is  dark  let  me  show  you 
my  library. ' ' 

Hawthorne,  acquiescing  enthusiastically,  followed  Fran- 
cia  into  a  room  opening  on  the  short  south-west  end  of  the 
garden.  It  had  a  big  window  next  the  door  and  another  in 
the  short  wall' towards  the  inlet.  The  floor  was  brick, 
visible  here  and  there  under  an  amazing  litter  of  torn 
papers,  among  which  showed  discarded  goose-quills,  corks, 
and  bite  of  twine.  A  large  table  occupied  the  middle  of 
the  room;  a  small  table  was  set  across  the  far  window, 

US 


146  EL   SUPREMO 

opposite  which,  against  the  other  short  wall,  towered  a  tall 
bufete,  like  Dr.  Bargas',  but  much  plainer  in  design  and 
construction.  By  its  corners  were  low  stands  bearing  an 
electric  machine  and  an  air-pump;  close  to  each  stood  a 
large  armillary  sphere,  one  celestial,  the  other  terrestrial. 
Between  the  big  table  and  the  long  wall  by  the  inner  door 
was  a  small  chess-table,  the  board  of  black  and  yellow  inlaid 
wood,  the  tall  chessmen  of  ivory,  white,  and  stained  red. 
In  the  far  corner  a  six-foot  brass  telescope  slanted  atilt  on 
a  straddling  tripod  of  rosewood,  brass-bound  at  the  joints. 
Between  the  two  windows  was  a  tripod  nearly  as  large 
bearing  a  fine  theodolite.  Between  the  outer  door  and 
window  bulged  a  portly,  red-earthenware  water- jar,  bigger 
than  a  hogshead.  By  it  a  slender  spiral-stemmed  stand, 
with  three  little  claw-feet,  proffered  a  jug  and  goblet.  The 
chairs  were  of  the  prevalent  local  pattern,  heavy,  with  tall 
straight  backs  and  ox-hide  seats  worn  glossy  and  brown 
with  long  use. 

On  the  table  was  a  confusion  of  papers,  amid  which 
showed  a  plain  old  silver  inkstand  and  out  of  which  stood 
up  a  dozen  or  more  simple  silver  candlesticks,  holding  tall 
tapers  most  of  whose  wicks  were  white  and  fresh.  Four 
were  burning,  evidently  just  lighted. 

The  walls  were  lined  with  books.  Hawthorne,  surveying 
the  room,  counted  eleven  sets  of  shelves,  each  of  six  tiers. 
Ju'dging  each  set  about  six  feet  long,  he  ran  over  some 
mental  computations,  calculated  that  there  could  not  be 
more  than  3,200  books  at  most,  that  there  were  certainly 
1,500,  and  pitched  on  2,500  as  about  a  safe  reckoning. 

"What  do  you  find  fault  with?"  Francia  queried 
sharply. 

"I  find  no  fault!"  Hawthorne  disclaimed,  startled. 

"You  have  the  air,"  Francia  said  severely,  "of  noting 
something  that  might  be  improved." 

Hawthorne  laughed. 

"I  was  thinking,"  he  confessed,  "that  if  it  were  my 
study,  I  should  transpose  some  of  the  fittings. ' ' 

"How?"  Francia  shot  at  him. 

"I  should  put  the  telescope  by  the  door,"  said  Haw 
thorne,  "where  it  would  be  easiest  wheeled  out  into  the 
garden ;  set  the  celestial  sphere  in  its  place  between  the  two 
windows,  where  it  can  most  easily  be  read ;  stand  the  theod- 


THE   LIBRARY  147 

olite  in  the  far  corner,  and  locate  the  terrestrial  globe 
in  the  theodolite's  place  by  the  window." 

"Good  advice!"  said  Francia.  "They  shall  be  so  ar 
ranged  to-morrow  morning.  I  begin  to  perceive  the  kind 
of  modifications  you  hope  to  apply  to  the  yerba  trade  and 
why  you  are  so  confident  that  you  can  improve  anything 
you  put  your  mind  to." 

' '  Thank  you  for  the  compliment, ' '  said  Hawthorne.  ' '  At 
the  moment  my  mind  is  filled  with  wonder  at  your  exploit 
in  forming  such  a  collection  of  books  in  this  part  of  the 
world." 

"You  consider  it  a  feat?"  Francia  beamed. 

"You  have  here,  I  conjecture,"  Hawthorne  said,  "cer 
tainly  one-third  and  probably  one-half  of  all  the  books  now 
in  existence  south  of  the  tropic  of  Capricorn." 

' '  Ah, ' '  said  Francia,  '  *  I  perceive  that  I  have  been  rightly 
informed  as  to  one  trait  of  you  North  Americans ;  that  you 
unduly  value  mere  quantity." 

"We  can  appreciate  quality  also,"  said  Hawthorne, 
somewhat  nettled.  *  *  For  instance,  this  is  probably  the  most 
valuable  book  in  your  possession." 

He  went  round  the  table  to  near  the  inner  door  and 
indicated  a  folio  of  the  Siete  Partidas,  printed  at  Sala 
manca  in  1490. 

"Why!"  Francia  exclaimed,  "that  is  a  mere  curiosity; 
an  old  tome  of  primitive  laws." 

"Spain's  first  code,"  Hawthorne  rejoined.  "But  that 
is  not  where  its  value  lies.  It  is  an  example  of  very  early 
printing,  almost  the  first  done  in  Spain,  and  is  in  a  beauti 
ful  early  binding,  in  perfect  condition." 

"I  see,"  said  Francia,  "you  know  already  more  about 
some  of  my  books  than  I  know  myself." 

With  a  sort  of  admiration  he  watched  Hawthorne  make 
the  round  of  the  room. 

The  long  wall,  from  the  inner  door  to  the  end  and  around 
to  the  window,  was  filled  with  law-books,  mostly  in  Spanish, 
but  of  those  by  the  window  many  in  Latin.  Between  the 
windows  were  more  Spanish  books,  among  which  Hawthorne 
recognised  duplicates  of  the  volumes  he  had  seen  at  Mayor- 
ga's,  not  only  the  same  authors,  but  the  same  editions  and 
bindings.  Besides  these  he  noticed  Calderon's  and  Lope  de 
Vega 's  dramas,  a  translation  of  Gil  Bias,  and  two  algebras. 


148  EL   SUPREMO 

Between  the  window  and  the  door  were  Latin  and  Greek 
books,  nearly  full  sets  of  the  Delphini  editions,  a  one- 
volume  corpus  of  poetry  in  each  language,  a  big  Leyden 
edition  of  Vitruvius,  an  Amsterdam  Aristotle  and  some 
other  Dutch  folios,  one  of  Euclid's  Elements. 

Beyond  the  door  were  French  books,  Bossuet's  sermons, 
Fenelon's  ' ' Telemaque, ' '  Rollin's  "Ancient  History"  and 
"History  of  Rome,"  Volney's  "Ruins,"  "Tissot  on  Medi 
cine,"  Rousseau's  "Social  Contract"  and  "Emile,"  with 
others,  and  many  of  Voltaire's  writings,  besides  Moliere's 
"Comedies,"  and  the  tragedies  of  Racine  and  Corneille. 
With  these  were  a  number  of  scientific  works,  most  notable 
Laplace's  small  astronomy  and  his  huge  "Celestial  Me 
chanics."  There  was  also  a  copy  of  Galland's  "transla 
tion"  of  the  "Arabian  Nights";  a  number  of  Latin  theo 
logical  works  and  Spanish  books  of  piety,  with  them  about 
two  dozen  German  books,  including  Schiller's  "Robbers" 
and  Goethe 's  l '  Werther ' ' ;  about  the  same  number  in  Ital 
ian,  mostly  poets,  as  Ariosto,  Tasso  and  Dante;  and  to 
Hawthorne 's  great  surprise,  a  full  shelf  of  books  in  English. 
He  was  astonished  that  there  should  be  any  English  books 
at  all  in  Asuncion,  and  amazed  at  the  respectable  array  on 
this  shelf. 

He  saw  substantially,  even  handsomely  bound  copies  of 
Milton,  Addison,  Steele,  Swift,  Pope,  Defoe,  Richardson, 
Smollett,  Sterne  and  Goldsmith. 

"You  are  surprised" — Francia  interpreted  his  look  as 
usual — "that  I  have  so  many  English  books.  They  were 
given  to  me  by  a  young  English  merchant,  then  a  valued 
friend  of  mine,  later  my  malignant  enemy,  since  I  would 
not  govern  Paraguay  to  further  his  profit. 

"I  have  not  read  them  all,  though  I  have  looked  over 
every  one;  sampled  each  in  places,  and  puzzled  out  not  a 
little  with  the  aid  of  my  two  dictionaries  and  my  grammar, 
wherever  the  matter  attracted  me.  One  only  have  I  read 
entire,  a  poet  young  Sefior  Robertson  seemed  to  regard 
as  barbarous  and  unpolished.  He  preferred  the  poet  Pope, 
a  satirist  whose  verse  displeases  me.  I  esteem  more  highly 
this  dramatist;  I  put  him  even  on  a  level  with  Lope  de 
Vega." 

He  laid  in  Hawthorne 's  hand  a  cheap,  small-print,  three- 
volume  edition  of  Shakespeare. 


THE   LIBRARY  149 

As  Hawthorne  was  commending  Francia's  taste  Bopi 
announced  supper. 

This  Hawthorne  found  laid  on  a  small  round  table,  at 
which  no  more  than  three  persons  could  possibly  have  been 
seated.  It  had  a  single  standard  with  three  plain,  uncarved 
feet.  This  was  the  dining  table  of  the  absolute  lord  of  that 
part  of  the  world. 

At  the  table  Francia  insisted  on  Hawthorne  seating  him 
self  first. 

"Shall  we  begin  with  mate?"  he  asked. 

"I  take  mate,"  Hawthorne  said,  "as  often  as  I  get  a 
chance. ' ' 

Francia  himself  prepared  a  silver  cup  of  the  national 
beverage,  tasted  it,  wiped  the  bombilla  on  a  napkin,  and 
passed  the  cup  to  Hawthorne,  who  the  moment  the  liquid 
touched  his  tongue  removed  the  tube  from  his  mouth  and 
exclaimed : 

"Why!  this  is  caa  cuys!" 

As  the  words  struck  on  his  own  ears,  he  remembered 
Don  Vicente 's  warning  and  remained  rigid,  his  mouth  open, 
his  right  hand  holding  the  bombilla  in  the  air,  the  picture 
of  consternation. 

Francia  cackled  a  two-note  laugh. 

"I  laid  a  trap  for  you!"  he  chuckled.  "You  said  this 
morning  that  hide  tercios  impart  to  yerba  a  flavor  dis 
agreeable  to  Europeans.  I  have  always  held  that  the  dif 
ferences  epicures  claim  to  detect  in  yerba  are  all  imaginary. 
I  see  I  have  been  in  the  wrong.  You  recognise  the  best 
selected  bud-powder  at  first  taste.  I  see  there  may  be 
something  in  your  notions." 

Hawthorne  only  stared. 

"Take  your  yerba  before  it  gets  cold,"  Francia  admon 
ished  him,  "and  let  me  have  mine." 

Hawthorne  hastened  to  obey. 

As  the  dinner  progressed  he  found  the  viands  excellent, 
but  the  wine  poor.  He,  however,  scarcely  noticed  his  food, 
all  his  faculties  busy  with  listening  to  ^Francia 's  talk  and 
answering  a  brisk  series  of  questions,  first  about  America, 
then  concerning  Washington,  and  later  about  Napoleon. 
Francia  had  heard  only  vague  rumours  of  the  Hundred 
Days  and  Waterloo,  and  displayed  some  approach  to  both 
sympathy  and  enthusiasm. 


150  EL   SUPREMO 

' '  Think  of  him ! ' '  he  said, ' '  marooned  on  that  lonely  rock 
to  die  like  a  caged  condor!  And  that  is  to  be  his  end! 
After  all  those  titanic  struggles,  all  those  dazzling  victories, 
this  is  the  end  of  his  splendid  administrative  powers! 
Somehow,  no  figure  in  all  the  history  of  mankind  appeals 
to  me  as  he  does.  I  feel  his  downfall  as  a  loss  to  me.  I 
feel  a  personal  pride  in  such  marvels  of  human  prowess  as 
his  Austerlitz  campaign.  I  cannot  help  imagining  how  I 
should  have  felt  to  know  him  safely  established  as  Em 
peror  of  Europe.  He  is  the  only  human  being  who  ever 
lived  who  makes  one  feel  he  ought  to  have  become  emperor 
of  the  whole  world.  Do  you  never  have  such  thoughts  of 
him?" 

1 '  Of  ten, "  Hawthorne  confessed.     "But -" 

"I  know  what  you  mean,"  Francia  took  him  up.  "In 
your  head  you  believe,  as  I  do,  that  all  governments  should 
be  democratic;  that  every  nation  should  be  a  republic, 
where  every  man  has  an  equal  voice,  as  in  your  country,  in 
the  determination  of  policies,  and  the  rulers  should  be 
temporary  servants  of  their  country,  chosen  because  their 
fellow-citizens  do  and  can  trust  them.  But  in  your  heart 
you  feel  that  real  efficiency  in  administration  never  has 
come  to  pass  on  earth  except  by  the  untrammelled  activity 
of  one  competent  man,  however  he  came  by  his  power." 

"I  think  all  men,"  said  Hawthorne,  "however  fanatical 
republicans  they  may  be,  feel  something  like  that  in  respect 
to  men  like  Bonaparte  and  yourself." 

Francia 's  face  showed  a  gleam  of  pleased  vanity,  but 
he  ignored  the  compliment  and  pursued : 

"One  thinks  of  Napoleon  in  'ifs.'  'If  he  had  retreated 
instantly  from  Prussia  after  its  devastation,  leaving  the 
memory  of  that  success  to  serve  as  an  example  of  what 
he  could  do,  who  would  ever  have  dared  to  attack  him 
again?  'If '  he  had  made  it  his  aim  to  hold  only  Italy  and 
France  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  Rhine,  giving  that  great, 
rich,  populous  realm  time  to  recuperate  in  peace  and  to 
develop  complete  loyalty  to  him,  what  could  ever  have  dis 
lodged  him? 

* '  And  yet  one  feels  his  empire  had  to  expand  continually 
or  perish  at  once ;  one  feels  him  already  doomed  to  failure 
from  before  his  first  victories  in  Italy. 

"I   suppose   there   were   other   factors,   perhaps  many 


THE   LIBRARY 


151 


other  factors,  perhaps  more  important  factors.  But  what 
impresses  me  as  crucial  was  his  failure  to  find  the  right 
woman  for  a  wife.  He  secured  his  first  important  com 
mand,  the  opportunity  to  prove  his  greatness  at  Lodi,  Ar- 
cola  and  Rivoli,  by  relieving  a  man  in  power  of  a  mistress 
who  wearied  him.  He  might  never  have  had  his  chance  at 
all  had  he  not  purchased  it  by  a  discreditable  transaction. 
But  by  that  very  transaction,  by  marrying  a  barren  widow, 
he  made  it  forever  impossible  for  him  to  become  the  un 
shakable  sovereign,  the  founder  of  earth 's  greatest  dynasty, 
which  he  later  saw  he  might  have  been. 

"Had  he  married  younger,  married  a  woman  like  his 
mother,  had  he  had  a  family  of  strong  sons  already  grown 
or  half  grown  around  him,  by  the  Peace  of  Vienna,  he 
would  never  have  been  unseated  by  any  coalition.  A  cool- 
headed,  warm-hearted  consort,  mother  of  his  children, 
would  have  steadied  his  soaring  aspirations  and  kept  him  to 
possibilities,  vast  enough  even  for  his  ambitions. 

"Had  he  even  found  in  his  step-child  and  adopted  son  a 
capable  and  adequate  heir  he  might  have  weathered  every 
storm  and  be  now  invincible  and  sublime/' 

Hawthorne  was  too  much  astonished  to  make  any  remark. 
He  fancied  Francia  was  thinking  of  Petrona  Zevallos. 

The  Dictator  resumed: 

"Marriage,  the  right  marriage,  that  is  an  essential  to 
any  great  human  success  in  any  walk  of  life.  Without 
that  all  is  dust  and  ashes,  all  is  dead-sea  fruit.  An  heir, 
an  heir  equal  to  his  duties,  acceptable  to  himself,  acclaimed 
by  his  people,  that  is  indispensable  to  a  successful  auto 
crat." 

Hawthorne  found  no  suitable  comment  and  remained 
silent.  He  had  been  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  talk 
of  his  projects,  but  he  had  too  much  sense  to  thrust  them 
forward  until  the  right  moment. 

The  meal  ended,  to  Hawthorne's  surprise,  with  coffee 
and  cigars.  This  Porteno  fashion,  at  least,  had  penetrated 
from  Buenos  Aires  to  Asuncion. 

Scarcely  were  the  cigars  drawing  well  when  Francia,  with 
one  of  his  sudden  changes  of  front,  saved  Hawthorne  the 
trouble  of  leading  up  to  what  he  most  wanted  to  talk  of. 

"I  have  been  thinking  over  what  you  said  this  morning," 
he  began,  "and  in  all  such  matters  I  like  to  come  to  the 


152  EL   SUPREMO 

point  at  once.  Suppose  we  begin  this  way.  You  undoubt 
edly  have  in  mind  some  special  privileges  which  you  expect 
me  to  accord  you  in  exchange  for  the  enrichment  of  Para-, 
guay  which  you  promise.  Now,  supposing  I  grant  all  you 
desire,  what  shall  I  be  granting  ?  Your  full  answer  to  that 
may  bring  us  to  an  understanding  quicker  than  any  other 
line  of  approach. ' ' 

Hawthorne,  a  bit  dazed,  certainly  taken  unawares,  re 
flected  during  a  puff  or  two. 

''I  dream,"  he  said,  "of  the  creation  of  a  world- wide 
demand  for  yerba  and  a  monopoly  for  Paraguay  of  its  pro 
duction.  If  that  cannot  be  brought  to  pass  I  hope  at  least 
for  a  greatly  increased  foreign  consumption  of  mate  and  a 
good  share  of  the  profits  for  this  country.  Let  us  aim  at 
the  first,  and  only  reduce  ourselves  to  the  second  as  a  last 
resort,  remembering  that  whatever  we  attempt  to  secure 
our  great  object  will  further  our  lesser. 

"If  the  establishment  of  universal  popularity  for  mate 
and  exclusive  production  of  yerba  by  Paraguay  is  to  come 
through  me,  I  should  first  familiarise  myself  with  the  locali 
ties  and  methods  of  its  present  collection,  then  with  all 
localities  in  Paraguay  where  the  plant  grows  wild  or  is, 
cultivated." 

"It  is  nowhere  cultivated  in  Paraguay, ' '  Francia  put  in, 
"and  the  former  plantations  of  the  Jesuits  in  Missiones 
have  relapsed  into  wildernesses." 

"In  that  case,  Most  Excellent  Sir,"  Hawthorne  pro 
ceeded,  "I  should  visit  and  inspect  those  ruined  planta 
tions,  examine  the  soil  and  view  the  arrangements  of  the 
plants,  if  any  traces  of  it  are  left  after  nearly  fifty  years 
of  neglect.  Then  I  should  traverse  all  the  localities  in 
Paraguay  suitable  for  cultivation  of  the  plant,  visit  all 
the  wild  natural  yerbales,  and  finally  complete  a  journey  en 
tirely  around  the  outskirts  of  the  country,  making  a  detour 
up  each  considerable  river  tributary  to  the  Paraguay  or  Pa 
rana  on  either  side,  to  ascertain  whether  the  plant  grows 
only  in  Paraguay  or  whether  the  yerbales  extend  into 
Brazil  also;  if  so,  whether  the  yerba  trees  there  are  of  the 
best  species  or  of  inferior  kinds.  After  I  have  accom 
plished  that  much  we  shall  know  whether  the  golden  pos 
sibility  of  a  complete  permanent  monopoly  is  within  our 
grasp  or  we  must  be  content  with  such  profits  as  accrue 


THE   LIBRARY  153 

to  the  possessors  of  the  most  desirable  quality  of  this  mer 
chandise,  pioneers  at  entering  and  creating  a  world-wide 
market. ' ' 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  Francia  said,  "you  Americans 
are  indeed  wonderful.  Had  any  other  man  spoken  thus  to 
me  I  should  have  regarded  his  utterances  as  the  vaporings 
of  one  demented.  From  your  lips  they  come  as  the  sane 
and  practicable  plans  of  a  man  perfectly  capable  of  push 
ing  them  to  a  successful  conclusion. 

"A  visit  to  Missiones  is  a  matter  of  time,  expense  and 
risk.  You  talk  of  it  as  if  it  were  a  stroll  from  here  to  the 
Cathedral.  An  expedition  to  a  yerbal  involves  great  per 
sonal  exertion,  exposure  to  heat,  thirst,  insects  and  danger 
of  the  fevers  and  other  diseases  of  our  primeval  forests. 
You  talk  of  surveying  all  our  yerbales,  and  it  sounds  not 
like  delirium,  but  entirely  within  your  powers.  You  lightly 
speak  of  beating  the  bounds  of  Paraguay,  a  journey,  or 
series  of  journeys,  which  occupied  five  years  of  the  life  of 
Don  Felix  de  Azara,  commissioner  of  both  governments  for 
the  delimitation  of  their  mutual  frontiers,  backed  by  all  the 
power  and  resources  of  the  kings  of  Portugal  and  Spain. 
Besides  Don  Felix,  no  man,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  accom 
plished  this  exploit.  You  speak  as  lightly  of  exploring 
river-gorges  haunted  by  wild  tribes,  as  primitive  and  hea 
thenish  as  before  Mendoza  sailed  up  from  the  ocean,  who 
give  no  quarter  to  any  white  man,  and  torture  their  prison 
ers.  And  you  make  me  believe  you  can  accomplish  all  you 
talk  of. 

'  *  Do  you  know,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  that  I  consider  it 
most  fortunate  for  me  that  you  have  come  to  Paraguay 
to  exploit  the  yerba  industry?  I  should  tremble  for  the 
welfare  of  my  Guaranies  and  for  my  security  in  power  here 
had  you,  applying  to  your  purpose  the  faculties  you  dis 
close  to  me,  come  to  Paraguay  to  foment  a  revolution." 

Hawthorne  did  not  lose  his  self-control.  He  did  not 
start.  The  dusk  had  long  before  given  place  to  moonlit 
night.  He  was  sure  it  was  too  dark  to  make  out  his  face 
clearly ;  moreover,  he  was  equally  sure  that,  in  fact,  he  did 
not  change  colour;  he  knew  he  had  not  altered  his  de 
meanour  in  any  way.  This  might  be  an  accidental  bull's- 
eye,  though  the  chances  against  its  being  fortuitous  were 
millions  to  one.  He  expected  to  hear  a  brief  order,  to  see 


154  EL    SUPREMO 

the  soldiers  rush  in  to  bind  him.  But  he  kept  his  coun 
tenance,  instantaneously  realising  that  his  only  safety  lay 
in  treating  the  words  precisely  as  they  were  uttered.  And 
Francia 's  expression  and  tone  carried  no  veiled  threat, 
no  ironical  feline  menace. 

"Still  more  fortunate  for  me,  I  imagine/'  Hawthorne 
succeeded  in  saying  in  an  easy  tone  and  with  an  unforced 
smile. 

"Yet  you  have  participated  in  insurrectionary  fighting?" 
Franeia  pursued. 

"I  have,"  Hawthorne  confessed.  "But  how  did  you 
learn  that?" 

"From  Banfi,"  the  Dictator  informed  him  matter-of- 
factly.  "Your  ship-captain,  of  course,  gave  me  a  full 
account  of  all  he  knew  of  his  passengers. ' ' 

"I  should  think,"  said  Hawthorne,  anxious  to  shift  Fran 
cia 's  attention,  "that  you  would  be  more  interested  in  my 
fellow  passengers  than  in  myself." 

"Perhaps  I  am."  The  Dictator  smiled.  "But  for  the 
moment  let  us  stick  to  you." 

Whereupon  Hawthorne  found  himself  compelled  to  give 
a  very  full  account  of  his  friendships  with  Bolivar  and 
San  Martin  and  of  the  fighting  in  Cuyo  and  Granada.  Not 
until  Hawthorne  was  effectually  pumped  dry  on  these  topics 
did  Francia 's  interrogatories  shift  to  the  subject  of  the 
voyage  up  the  river  and  similarly  question  him  about  Bel- 
tran  and  Ventura. 

"Three  times  captured  by  the  French!"  he  exclaimed. 
"And  three  escapes?  I  must  see  more  of  him.  Saw  Na 
poleon?  Had  an  interview  with  him?  I  must  see  more  of 
this  young  hero.  I  must  talk  to  him  of  the  Great  Man. 
And  I  suppose  our  wandering  heiress  found  him  irre 
sistible.  I  presume  we  shall  be  having  a  wedding  shortly 
at  San  Bernardino?" 

"I  think  not,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"You  surprise  me,"  the  Dictator  exclaimed.  "These 
must  be  extraordinary  young  people. ' ' 

"You  must  remember,"  Hawthorne  explained,  "that 
Beltran,  while  not  actually  affianced  before  he  left  Para 
guay,  felt  himself  in  some  sort  bound  to  another  heiress 
here.  He  never  spoke  of  the  matter  directly  to  me,  but  I 
inferred  as  much  from  some  generalisations  he  let  fall. 


THE   LIBRARY  155 

Since  reaching  Asuncion  I  have  heard  what  leads  me  to 
fancy  the  lady  is  Seiiorita  Angelica  Recalde." 

1  'True/'  Francia  ruminated.  "I  had  forgotten  that 
affair.  It  was  his  father's  idea.  His  grandmother  was 
opposed  to  it  and  will  most  likely  do  all  she  can  to  break 
it  up." 

"Then  again, "  Hawthorne  said,  "Senorita  Velarde  is  a 
most  unusual  young  woman.  She  has  very  definite  ideas 
on  the  subject  of  matrimony,  partly  her  own,  partly  ab 
sorbed  in  England  and  in  my  country.  She  talked  freely 
of  her  ideas  to  me,  to  Beltran,  to  both  of  us  together. 
Sometimes  Dona  Juanita  participated  in  our  discussions, 
sometimes  not.  She  hooted  at  Sefiorita  Velarde's  notions. 
But  Ventura  maintained  her  contentions  that  to  marry  at 
random  the  first  youth  that  pleases  is  likely  to  ruin  a 
woman's  life ;  that  a  woman  had  better  not  wed  at  all  than 
link  herself  to  the  wrong  man ;  that  deliberate  choice  was 
likely  to  be  most  happy ;  that  for  a  husband,  at  least  from 
her  own  point  of  view,  not  looks  or  manners  or  lineage  or 
wealth,  but  intellect  was  the  most  important  requisite. 
She  dwelt  much  on  her  admiration  for  greatness  of  soul 
and  vast  powers  of  mind.  In  his  words,  at  least,  Beltran 
agreed  with  her." 

"You  cannot  but  have  noticed  long  ago,"  Francia^said, 
"that  that  sort  of  talk  between  young  folks  is  a  species  of 
love-making.  A  girl  talks  of  intellect,  but  she  has  none ; 
she  is  all  emotions." 

"Ventura,"  Hawthorne  maintained,  "has  much  more 
than  emotions.  She  has  intellect  and  serious  purposes. 
She  was  too  absorbed  in  the  idea  of  doing  her  duty  to  her 
father  to  think  of  love-making.  Her  chief  idea  was  to 
requite  her  father  for  all  he  had  done  for  her,  to  apply 
her  accomplishments  to  making  his  old  age  happy  and  her 
attainments  to  caring  for  his  property." 

Hereupon  Francia  began  questioning  Hawthorne  about 
Ventura. 

"Half  a  year  at  Paris  at  the  Emperor  s  court/     ne  e^ 
claimed.     "I  must  talk  with  this  young  woman.     Plays 
chess?    Can  hold  her  own  against  you  or  Beltran?    1  must 
see  what  that  means.     Suppose  we  go  back  to  my  1  brary 
and  have  a  game  of  chess?" 
Hawthorne,  of  course,  assented. 


1156  EL   SUPREMO 

On  their  way  the  Dictator  said : 

"I  had  changed  my  mind  since  this  morning  and  meant 
to  send  word  to  Madrina  Juana  that  I  could  not  come  to 
Itapua  for  her  fiesta.  But  I  must  see  this  amazing  young 
woman  and  hear  from  her  own  lips  her  account  of  her  ad 
ventures,  and  especially  of  Napoleon 's  court. ' ' 

In  the  library  he  lighted  all  the  candles  from  the  one 
flickering,  guttered  stump  still  burning. 

Over  the  pieces  he  said : 

"Do  you  know  when  I  may  expect  the  fifth  and  sixth 
volumes  of  Laplace 's  '  Astronomy '  ?  " 

"I  did  not  even  know,"  Hawthorne  said,  "how  many 
volumes  were  out  or  that  the  work  was  still  incomplete." 

"Checkmate,"  said  the  Dictator  finally.  "I  beat  you 
fairly.  You  did  your  best.  You  are  no  mean  player  and 
might  beat  me  two  games  out  of  five.  If  Ventura  can  play 
you,  when  you  give  her  odds  of  only  a  queen's  bishop,  she 
must  be  a  marvel." 

Hawthorne  rose  to  go. 

"I  have  kept  you  up,"  he  said. 

"It  is  agreeable  to  be  kept  up,"  said  Francia.  "I  have 
had  little  companionship  these  many  years.  Sit  down.  Be 
fore  you  go  let  us  recur  to  your  projects.  If  you  really 
desire  to  risk  your  life  in  explorations,  I  shall  give  you 
every  facility  for  success  and  safety.  If,  after  investiga 
tions,  you  desire  to  make  experiments  with  plantations,  I 
will  grant  that,  too. 

"But  you  must  know  that  laziness  is  the  curse  of  Para 
guay.  The  Jesuits  established  yerla  plantations  because 
they  had  gathered  their  converts  into  villages  called  reduc 
tions  and  acquired  such  control  of  them  that  they  induced 
them  to  labour  daily,  as  a  part  of  their  efforts  towards  win 
ning  heaven  and  escaping  hell.  The  incentive  was  per 
petual  preaching.  The  cost  in  cash  was  nothing.  The 
reductions  are  all  mere  villages  of  Tape  Indians,  as  we  call 
Christianised  natives.  No  native  works  more  than  he  must 
and  no  wife  more  than  her  husband  makes  her.  I  cannot 
imagine  them  working  for  wages,  at  least  not  for  any  that 
would  make  i/er&a-raising  profitable  for  their  employers; 
scarcely  for  any  at  all. 

"Now  let  me  ask  you,  how  did  you  expect  to  get  la 
bourers  ? ' ' 


THE   LIBRARY  157 

"If  the  plantations/'  Hawthorne  said,  "are  a  state  ven 
ture,  I  had  thought  of  beginning  with  convict  labour. ' ' 

"Convict  labour!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "We  have  no 
such  thing  in  Paraguay." 

"Better  inaugurate  it  then,"  said  Hawthorne  simply. 

"I  don't  know  what  you  mean,"  Francia  jerked  out 
testily. 

"Prison  labour,"  Hawthorne  explained. 

"Be  clear!  Make  yourself  intelligible!"  the  Dictator 
snapped. 

1 '  I  hear, ' '  Hawthorne  expounded  easily,  ' '  that  Paraguay 
is  the  easiest  policed  area  on  this  continent,  and  its  popu 
lace  the  least  criminal.  But  there  must  be  some  prisons 
and  some  prisoners.  Any  prison  costs  money  and  any  pris 
oners  are  expensive  to  watch  and  to  feed;  most  of  all,  in 
this  climate,  to  keep  alive  in  confinement.  Now,  if  instead 
of  penning  up  criminals  in  dungeons  or  cuartels,  shut  in 
cells  or  chained  in  patios,  they  were  kept  out  of  doors  at 
work,  they  would  keep  alive  and  well  instead  of  dying  and 
sickening.  They  would  cost  less  for  doctoring  and  feeding. 
Also  their  work  would  help  pay  the  cost  of  guarding  them, 
or  even  pay  it  all,  perhaps  even  yield  a  profit  over  all  the 
cost  of  their  keep  and  detention." 

"That  sounds  as  plausible  as  anything  or  everything 
you  utter,"  Francia  retorted.  "But  you  forget  that  the 
main  object  in  respect  to  any  prisoner  is  to  prevent  escape. 
Out  of  doors,  at  work  especially,  escape  is  easy. ' ' 

"From  the  little  I  have  heard  of  the  districts  where 
yerba  grows, ' '  Hawthorne  argued,  1 1  it  seems  probable  that 
a  yerbal  would  be  an  ideal  place  for  a  penal  settlement. 
Inaccessible  except  by  river,  surrounded  by  impenetrable 
forests  and  swamps  peopled  by  merciless  savages,  preven 
tion  of  escape  seems  simple.  Two  posts  on  the  river  to  catch 
any  convicts  attempting  to  escape  down  stream,  a  few 
guards  to  forestall  boatbuilding,  and  there  you  are.  The 
Guaycarus,  always  on  the  watch  for  man-meat,  would  make 
escape  unthinkable  and  charge  nothing  for  acting  as  effi 
cient  patrols." 

Francia  cackled  a  laugh. 

"You  have  always  an  eye  for  economy,"  he  chuckled, 
"and  a  good  eye.  Granting  all  that,  and  I  must  say  the 
idea  recommends  itself  to  me  at  once,  do  you  imagine  I 


158  EL   SUPREMO 

would  empty  my  prisons  totally  into  some  distant  penal 
colony  ? ' ' 

"No,"  said  Hawthorne.  "Many  of  the  prisoners  must 
be  waiting  trial  or  under  short  sentences.  All  such  are 
best  where  they  are.  Of  the  rest  many  would  be  useless 
for  outdoor  labour.  Criminals  are  poor  stuff  for  labourers, 
anyhow.  Only  those  judged  fit  would  be  drafted  off." 

''Who  is  to  judge?"  Francia  queried. 

"I,  if  you  approve  of  my  penal  colony  project, "  said 
Hawthorne. 

Francia  sat  straight  up  in  his  chair,  staring  at  Haw 
thorne  across  the  half  empty  chess-board,  with  its  huddle 
of  captured  pieces  along  each  side.  He  leaned  forward, 
the  beams  of  the  flickering  tapers  lighting  up  his  right 
cheek,  his  smooth-shaven  jaw  and  that  side  of  his  chisel 
nose.  His  eyes  bored  into  Hawthorne's. 

"You  propose  to  me,"  he  cried,  "that  I  permit  you  to 
inspect  my  prisons!  You  lead  up  to  this  proposal  by  a* 
long  and  carefully  constructed  series  of  alluring  proposi 
tions  !  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  you  are  too  deep  or  too  shal 
low.  You  should  have  been  sharp  enough  to  foresee,  or 
you  should  not  have  been  so  dull  as  not  to  foresee,  that 
such  a  suggestion  from  a  newly  arrived  alien  to  a  man  in 
my  position  was  bound  to  awake  the  liveliest  suspicions. 
Could  you  entertain  the  idea  that  I  would  permit  you  to 
inspect  my  prisons?" 

Hawthorne  met  his  gaze  squarely,  as  squarely  as  he  met 
the  issue. 

"I  did  entertain  the  idea,"  he  answered.  "I  meant 
even  to  ask  your  permission  to  inspect  them.  But  I  see  no 
reason  for  suspicions.  I  confess  that  I  should  like  to  in 
spect  the  prisons  of  Asuncion.  I  have  always  gone  over 
prisons  as  I  have  gone  over  arsenals,  dockyards  and  other 
government  enclosures  wherever  I  have  been  permitted.  I 
am  quite  ready  to  ask  your  leave  here  and  now  and  even 
apart  from  any  question  of  penal  colony  or  yerba  culture. ' ' 

He  paused,  his  eyes  on  the  Dictator's. 

Francia  sat,  manifestly  dumbfounded. 

Hawthorne  placidly  continued : 

"I  should  be  willing  to  wager  anything  right  here,  that 
it  would  be  to  your  advantage  to  let  me  examine  your 
prisons  and  report  on  them  to  you.  I  am  absolutely  disin- 


THE    LIBRARY  159 

terested  and  have  had  much  experience.  .1  never  saw  a 
prison  I  could  not  improve.  I  am  certain  I  could  show  you 
how  to  save  money  on  yours  while  increasing  their  effi 
ciency  as  prisons,  as  easily  as  I  showed  you  how  to  rear 
range  this  room  to  better  advantage." 

''You  are  too  persuasive,"  Francia  snarled.  "Shall  I 
order  your  arrest,  give  you  all  the  remainder  of  this  night 
to  make  acquaintance  with  one  of  Asuncion's  prisons  and 
as  many  days  as  you  have  left  to  think  of  improvements 
and  to  meditate  on  efficiency  of  detention  ? ' ' 

Hawthorne  kept  his  countenance  and  went  on  easily: 

"As  for  suspicions,  my  original  proposal  was  not  for 
immediate  inspection  of  your  prisons,  only  that  after  I  had 
made  peregrination  of  all  the  yerbales  and  of  the  confines 
of  Paraguay,  if  I  saw  enough  chances  of  trade  monopoly 
or  trade  advantage  to  make  culture  worth  while,  if  culture 
appeared  an  improvement  over  collection,  if  methods  of 
culture  recommended  themselves  to  me,  if  I  came  upon  a 
locality  suitable  by  soil,  climate  and  surroundings  for  set 
tlement  as  a  penal  colony,  if  you  approved  all  these  ideas, 
if  you  also  approved  of  employing  convict  labour,  if  you 
further  approved  of  me  to  select  that  labour,  I  might  then 
be  allowed  to  enter  the  prisons  to  choose  felons  for  de 
portation.  A  proposition  depending  on  so  many  '  if s '  seems 
to  me  no  basis  for  even  a  shadow  of  suspicion. 

Francia 's  set  face  relaxed. 

' '  You  are  a  convincing  talker, ' '  he  uttered.  He  stood  up. 
"I  think,"  he  went  on,  "you  spoke  of  leaving?" 

Hawthorne,  relieved,  and  now  for  the  first  time  realising 
what  his  danger  had  been,  rose,  bowing  wordlessly. 

Francia  took  a  candle  from  the  table.  Following  his 
hand  Hawthorne's  eyes  fell  upon  the  characters  on  a  big 
sheet  of  paper  amid  the  welter  on  the  table-top.  He  thought 
he  saw  a  chance  for  a  diversion. 

11  Excelentisimo  Seiior,"  he  remarked,  "I  observe  that 
you  have  been  predicting  an  eclipse." 

Francia  stood  petrified. 

Hawthorne  pointed  to  the  paper. 

Instantly  Francia  was  a  totally  different  man.  The 
harsh,  suspicious  despot  had  vanished.  In  his  place  stood 
the  eager,  absorbed  man  of  science. 

"You  understand  calculating  eclipses?"  he  queried. 


160  EL    SUPREMO 

"Fairly  well,"  Hawthorne  replied,  his  knees  no  longer 
trembling  under  him. 

* '  Where  did  you  learn  ? ' '  the  Dictator  interrogated. 

' '  At  Harvard  College, ' '  Hawthorne  answered. 

" Where  is  that?"  came  back  the  question. 

' '  In  Massachusetts, ' '  the  American  responded. 

Francia  shook  his  head. 

"I  know  nothing  of  the  educational  institutions  of  your 
country, ' '  he  confessed,  and  continued :  '  '  Could  you  go  over 
and  verify  my  calculations?" 

"I  should  not  venture  upon  that,"  Hawthorne  dis 
claimed.  * '  But  if  you  give  me  your  data  I  can  compute  the 
times  of  a  lunar  eclipse,  or  the  times  and  track  of  a  solar 
eclipse,  and  a  comparison  of  our  results  would  check  up 
both." 

" Excellent !"  Francia  exclaimed.  "Decidedly  we  must 
see  more  of  each  other.  But  do  not  mar  our  intercourse 
by  again  suggesting  inspecting  my  prisons,  or  perhaps  my 
barracks  or  arsenal  or  treasury. ' ' 

"I  could  improve  any  one  of  them,"  Hawthorne  blurted 
out  with  reckless  effrontery. 

"Perhaps,"  Francia  enunciated  dryly.  "But  we  will 
speak  of  all  that  no  more.  Let  us  stick  to  eclipses. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  PERMIT 

(i) 

FRANCIA  moved  towards  the  outer  door,  checked  him 
self,  and  turned  to  the  other. 

"Before  I  let  you  out,"  he  said,  "come  with  me  to  my 
window;  you  may  hear  something  curious  or  interesting, 
if  you  understand  enough  Guarani. ' ' 

He  led  the  way  across  a  passage  and  through  a  room  to 
a  tiny  patio  smelling  of  cooking  and  chiefly  of  garlic.  Then 
they  traversed  a  room,  a  passage,  and  again  a  room,  and 
came  out  into  a  large  moonlit  courtyard  faintly  scented  with 
gunpowder  and  leather.  Beyond  that  they  again  traversed 


THE   PERMIT  161 

a  room,  a  passage  and  again  a  room,  barely  not  pitch-dark, 
lighted  only  by  faint  glimmers  from  the  moonlight  on  the 
walls  outside.  Next  they  came  out  into  a  smaller  patio, 
smelling  strongly  of  dried  leaf  tobacco. 

As  they  went  Francia  monologued : 

"You  must  know,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  that  it  is  my 
custom,  the  last  thing  at  night,  before  I  go  to  bed,  to  listen 
at  this  window  and  look  out  in  case  some  petitioner  desires 
to  speak  to  me  secretly  or  some  suitor  hopes  for  justice 
from  a  personal  interview.  The  temper  of  the  lowly  here 
is  peculiar  and  they  are  very  timorous.  Though  any  one 
of  them  might  have  access  to  me  in  my  morning  audience- 
hour,  few  or  none  ever  present  themselves  publicly.  The 
wrongs  of  the  poor,  their  miseries  and  misfortunes  are 
mostly  communicated  to  me  in  whispers  late  at  night. 

"This  custom  of  mine  began  while  I  was  yet  a  young 
advocate,  in  the  time  of  Intendente  Don  Joaquin  de  Aloz. 
His  courts  always  found  for  a  Spaniard  against  a  Creole  or 
Guarani.  It  was  notorious.  So  notorious  did  it  become 
that  licentiates  refused  to  plead  cases  for  Guaranies,  even. 
for  Creoles.  Advocates  felt  that  to  appear  for  a  native 
branded  them  as  disaffected  in  Don  Joaquin 's  eyes.  It  was 
worse  under  Don  Lazaro  Espinosa.  I  ventured  to  defend 
a  poor  wretch  manifestly  guiltless  and  to  prove  the  evi 
dence  against  him  perjured.  Thereupon  widows,  labourers, 
artisans,  small  gardeners,  and  keepers  of  little  shops  began 
to  resort  to  me  in  their  troubles.  They  very  generally  came 
at  night  to  the  window  of  my  study,  where  I  read  late. 
After  I  retired  to  Ibirai  in  Espinosa 's  time  my  clients 
mostly  saw  me  at  my  uncle's  parsonage,  where  I  usually 
passed  my  mornings  when  I  came  into  the  city  to  court. 
But  some  rode  out  to  Ibirai,  some  walked.  Some  even 
crept  out  there  after  dark.  My  study  window  there 
became  a  consultation  wicket.  Usually  I  would  look  out 
of  it  after  I  extinguished  my  candles,  just  before  I  went 
to  bed. 

"One  night,  I  know  not  why,  I  forgot  to  do  so.  Alas, 
Senor  Don  Guillermo,  how  trifling  are  the  neglects,  how 
diabolical  the  coincidences  that  leave  us  lifelong  regrets  L 
For  a  week  or  more  I  had  leaned  out  of  that  window,, 
peered  about,  listened  and  called: 

"  'Is  any  one  there?' 


162  EL   SUPREMO 

"That  night,  wearied  with  some  calculations,  I  threw  my 
self  on  my  cot  and  slept  at  once. 

"That  very  day  a  poor  keeper  of  a  pulperia,  of  a  little 
shop  where  he  sold  eatables  and  liquors,  had  been  arrested 
on  false  information  for  participation  in  a  stabbing  affray. 
His  wife,  a  comely  young  woman,  had  crawled  out  to  Ibirai 
to  ask  my  assistance.  She  was  waiting  outside  my  window 
at  the  very  moment  I  sank  into  luxurious  rest  on  my  soft 
bed. 

"Poor  creature,  her  every  step  must  have  been  agony  as 
she  toiled  towards  the  help  she  hoped  for.  In  her  ex 
haustion  and  anxiety  her  child  was  born  there  on  the  hard 
ground  sometime  in  the  night  as  she  waited  in  vain,  too 
timid  to  call  for  aid.  There  the  two  pitiful  corpses  were 
found  in  the  morning;  cold,  rigid  reproaches  to  me  for 
my  neglect. 

"Since  that  day  my  last  act  before  I  sleep  is  to  make  sure 
that  I  shall  not  again  sin  by  omission  in  this  respect. " 

From  the  tobacco-scented  patio  they  crossed  a  passage 
and  stopped  at  a  heavily  barred  door,  the  big  padlocks  of 
which  Francia  unlocked  one  by  one.  Through  it  they 
entered  a  small  room,  entirely  bare  of  furniture. 

The  one  window,  facing  the  door,  was  broad,  sashless, 
low-silled,  high-lintelled,  and  defended  only  by  a  grill  of 
light  bars,  wide-spaced,  set  rather  far  out.  Through  it 
Hawthorne  saw  the  moonlit  side-wall  of  the  Palacio  glim 
mering  on  his  left;  the  rest  of  the  outlook  was  across  the 
Plaza  and  the  river.  He  realised  that  he  was  looking  out  of 
the  lower  window  under  the  mirador  which  he  had  noticed 
in^the  corner  of  the  Plaza  that  morning. 

"Keep  out  of  sight  behind  me,"  Francia  whispered. 
He  leaned  across  the  sill  and  spoke  penetratingly  in 
Ouarani  and  then  in  Spanish. 
"Is  any  one  there?" 

In  a  viperish,  hissing  whisper  came  back  the  words : 
"El  Angel  Vengador!" 

Hawthorne,  craning  over  Francia 's  shoulder,  saw  the 
gleam  of  a  long,  thin  blade  flash  between  the  bars  from  the 
left. 

His  quick  left  hand  shot  out  like  lightning  and  gripped 
the  assassin's  wrist. 

The  dagger  tinkled  on  the  sill. 


THE   PERMIT  163 

With  a  shrill  snarl  the  baffled  miscreant  wrenched  free. 

Hawthorne  was  amazed  to  see  a  tall  figure  in  a  woman's 
tup&i  and  flat  straw  hat,  fleeing  noiselessly  along  the  palace 
wall.  It  turned  the  corner  westward  before  the  Dictator 
spoke. 

''Was  that  a  woman?"  he  asked. 

"It  might  have  been  a  woman/'  Hawthorne  replied,  '  or 
a  man  in  a  woman's  clothes.  I  could  not  make  out  for  cer 


tain." 


But  the  smell?"  Francia  queried  in  a  loud,  shrill, 
mounting  tone,  almost  a  scream.  "Do  you  not  notice  that 
smell?  Did  you  not  notice  that  strange  odour?  Did  you 
recognise  it?" 

"I  smelt  it,"  Hawthorne  admitted.    "I  seem  to  smell 
yet.     It  is  unpleasant  enough  and  like  nothing  else  oa 
earth.     But  it  is  like  nothing  I  ever  smelt  before, 
not  recognise  it." 

"Nor  I,  unfortunately,"  said  Francia.  But  it  is  like 
something,  like  two  somethings  I  have  smelt  before,  smelt 
often,  and  ought  to  remember  well  and  recognise  at  once. 
If  I  could  only  recall  where  I  have  smelt  either  I  should 
know  where  to  search  for  that  misfit  Azrael." 

"He  missed  you?"  Hawthorne  queried  eagerly, 
are  not  hurt?" 

"A  little  hurt,"  Francia  replied,  "but  thanks  to  you, 
Don  Guillermo,  I  am  merely  scratched.  Let  us  get  a  light 
and  stop  the  blood." 

At  the  door  of  the  room  he  reset  the  two  bars  and  snapped 
the  four  padlocks. 

"Better  come  back  and  do  that,"  Hawthorne  ventured. 
"You'll  lose  too  much  blood." 

"It  is  only  a  skin-slash,"  Francia  replied  coolly,     and 
if  I  leave  these  bars  unfastened  there  may  be  a  dozen 
throats  hiding  in  different  parts  of  my  abode 
return  to  secure  the  door."  . 

Once  in  his  library  again  he  lit  more  candles,  using  ms 
right  hand,  his  left  holding  his  handkerchief 

ThVponiard  had  grazed  the  collar-bone  and  torn  a  ragged 
sift  in  the  loose  skin  of  the  throat. 

"This  should  have  stitches,"  Hawthorne  exclaimed. 
"Can  you  stitch  it?"  Francia  queried. 


.164 


EL   SUPREMO 


"I?"  Hawthorne  exclaimed.  "You  should  have  a  sur 
geon." 

"No  more  shall  know  of  this,"  Francia  declared,  "than 
must  know  of  it;  that  is  you  and  I." 

He  rummaged  in  the  drawers  of  the  tall  bufete,  produced 
everything  necessary,  and  showed  no  sign  of  wincing  while 
Hawthorne  put  in  three  stitches. 

Francia  soaked  a  dressing  of  lint  with  a  brown  liquid 
from  a  Dublin-Stout  bottle. 

"Guarani  eye-lotion,"  he  explained.  "I  don't  know 
what  they  make  it  of,  but  every  cut  treated  with  it  heals 
by  first  intention.  By  day  after  to-morrow  this  will  hardly 
feel  sore." 

"Shall  you  go?"  Hawthorne  exclaimed. 

"Certainly,"  Francia  declared.  "A  trifle  like  this  will 
not  hurt  me.  But  I  shall  never  forget  that,  but  for  you, 
I  should  now  be  a  dead  man.  Lurking  in  the  corner  of 
the  two  walls  the  assassin  was  safe  to  make  an  end  of  me. 
I  am  under  a  heavy  debt  to  you.  So  is  all  Paraguay.  Sit 
down,  Don  Guillermo." 

Hawthorne  seated  himself  at  the  candle-loaded  table. 
Francia  drew  up  a  chair.  He  rooted  among  the  papers, 
found  a  small  note-book,  tore  out  a  leaf,  tried  a  quill,  and 
scribbled  something  on  it,  held  it  over  a  candle  until  the 
ink  was  dry,  and  tossed  it  to  Hawthorne. 

"There!"  he  said.  "Let  that  be  the  first  instalment  of 
my  debt  to  you.  I  can  refuse  you  nothing  now,  Don  Guil 
lermo.  You  wish  to  inspect  my  prisons;  with  that  paper 
as  a  passport  you  will  be  shown  over  them  as  if  you  were 
myself  in  person." 

Hawthorne  began  some  expression  of  thanks. 

' '  Never  mind  all  that, ' '  Francia  cut  in  on  him.  ' '  Requite 
me  by  complete  silence  regarding  this  attempt  on  my  life. 

"If  you  must  thank  me,  express  your  thanks  by  coming 
to  see  me  often.  And,  by  the  by,  consider  yourself  privi 
leged  to  call  upon  me  at  any  time  between  sunrise  and 
•sunset,  even  during  my  siesta  hour.  If  you  rouse  me  from 
my  siesta  I  shall  know  you  have  something  of  importance 
to  say  which  will  not  wait  even  an  hour.  I  see  you  have 
excellent  discretion." 

"When,  a  few  moments  later,  Francia  ushered  him  out  of 
the  main  entrance  facing  the  river,  Hawthorne,  as  he  heard 


THE   PERMIT  165 

the  bolts  shot,  bars  put  up  and  padlocks  snapped  behind 
him,  was  astonished  to  find  no  guard,  sentinel,  sentry  or 
patrol  anywhere  in  sight. 

The  nearly  full  moon  had  just  reached  that  point  in 
the  sky  where  its  rays  began  to  light  up  the  front  of  the 
Cathedral.  Far  before  him  the  mean  whitewash  of  the 
dumpy  tower  and  squat  fagade  was  all  fairy  silver  through 
the  sluggish  wisps  of  river  mist,  and  the  three  openings  of 
the  porch  yawned  fascinatingly  black  under  their  arches 
and  between  their  columns.  When  he  turned  the  corner 
of  the  low  building  nearest  the  head  of  the  thorn-grown 
gully  that  divided  the  Market  Plaza  from  the  Cathedral 
Plaza  and  saw  along  Calle  Comercio  he  beheld  the  dwellers 
as  they  usually  appeared  about  eleven  o'clock  of  a  hot 
night.  Most  of  them  were  out  on  the  continuous  covered 
verandah  which  united  the  whole  row  of  shop  fronts  into, 
as  it  were,  one  long,  low  building,  more  than  three  hundred 
yards  from  end  to  end,  the  break  where  narrow  Calle  Con- 
cepcion  ended,  at  Calle  Comercio  and  the  square,  not  being 
noticeable  in  the  moonlight,  the  pearly  glimmer  of  which 
was  diffused  enough  to  render  dimly  visible  the  white-clad 
forms  in  the  shadowy  space  under  the  verandah  roof,  into 
which  their  beds  had,  as  was  customary,  been  carried. 

Some  were  already  abed  and  snoring,  as  Hawthorne 
heard  over  his  right  shoulder ;  some  sat  on  their  rude  cots, 
their  bare  feet  swinging  idly ;  some  few  were  standing  lean 
ing  against  the  pillars  of  the  verandah-corridor  or  walking 
about.  Some  of  the  sitters  yawned  and  stretched  their 
arms,  preparatory  to  lying  down  for  the  night.  Many  were 
smoking.  A  murmurous  drone  of  low-voiced  conversation, 
punctuated  by  a,  soft,  musical  Castilian  laugh,  whispered 
under  the  long  portico. 

Guitars  sounded  farther  off  and  the  music  of  one  or  more 
was  in  his  ears  all  the  way  to  the  Mayorga  Mansion. 


(2) 

Next  morning  at  breakfast  Hawthorne  felt  a  difference 
in  the  social  atmosphere.  Old  and  young,  men  and  women, 
stared  at  him  as  if  he  had  been  a  portent  dropped  from 
the  sky.  All  were  polite  and  solicitous,  but  the  effort  to 


166  EL   SUPREMO 

make  conversation  was  obvious  and  Don  Vicente  talked 
almost  at  random.  At  the  earliest  opportunity  lie  led  Haw 
thorne  into  the  room  in  which  they  had  first  talked  and 
there  interrogated  him. 

He  was  manifestly  more  and  more  amazed. 

"You  are  a  magician,  Don  Guillermo!"  he  exclaimed. 
' '  A  wizard !  You  have  not  only  accomplished  all  you  fore 
shadowed,  but  more,  and  accomplished  it  at  once !  This  is 
astounding.  You  must  be  exhausted  after  your  prolonged 
exertion  of  all  your  faculties  at  such  a  tension.  You  need 
diversion,  recreation.  Let  us  go  to  Don  Bernardo  Velasco  's 
and  set  off  with  him  on  a  partridge  hunt." 

"I  mean  to  enjoy  a  partridge  hunt  with  Don  Bernardo/ ' 
Hawthorne  replied.  * '  But  to-day  it  cannot  be.  I  am  going 
to  the  prison." 

"Going  to  prison!"  Don  Vicente  cried,  the  picture  of 
consternation. 

"No,"  Hawthorne  laughed;  "only  going  to  inspect  the 
prison. ' ' 

' '  You  are  mad ! ' '  Don  Vicente  exclaimed.  { '  If  the  Dic 
tator  heard  of  your  so  much  as  strolling  about  the  neigh 
bourhood  of  the  prison,  let  alone  loitering  about  it,  not  to 
speak  of  conning  it,  no  power  on  earth  could  save  your  life. 
He  would  order  you  shot  at  once. 

"The  guards,  for  that  matter,  would  shoot  you  without 
waiting  for  orders  if  they  saw  you  so  much  as  gazing  at  it 
from  any  near  point  of  view." 

"I  should  have  explained,"  Hawthorne  put  in  modestly, 
"that  I  have  El  Supremo's  order  to  inspect  all  his  prisons." 

Every  particle  of  colour  left  Don  Vicente's  face.  The 
cigar  fell  from  his  lips  and  rolled  down  his  waistcoat  and 
dropped  to  the  floor. 

"I  am  not  mad,"  Hawthorne  assured  him.  "Here  is  the 
order.  Read  it." 

Mayorga  read  it. 

Read  it  twice. 

"Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "were  we  as  we  were  twenty 
years  ago  you  would  be  in  danger  of  the  Holy  Office.  You 
are  more  than  a  conjuror.  You  are  a  necromancer,  a 
sorcerer.  This  is  surely  beyond  the  reach  of  any  white 
magic.  This  is  the  effect  of  the  black  art!  How  did  you 
obtain  this  ?  By  what  incantations  ? ' ' 


THE   PERMIT  167 

Hawthorne,  of  course,  could  not  give  any  hint  of  his 
having  saved  Francia's  life.  He  did  not  hesitate,  but  re 
plied  instantly: 

"I  am  not  sure  whether  the  most  potent  charm  was 
chess  or  eclipses. ' ' 

"You  must  lose  at  chess  very  subtly,"  Mayorga  re 
marked,  "and  compute  eclipses  very  rapidly.  And  you 
mean  to  use  this  to-day?" 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  declared. 

Don  Vicente  looked  grave. 

"This,"  he  said,  "will  put  you  in  a  very  delicate  posi 
tion.  Lisardo  told  me,  of  course,  of  what  passed  at  Jeno- 
fonte's  yesterday  afternoon.  Rogelio's  suspicions  do  him 
no  credit,  without  question.  But,  if  the  rest  hear  of  your 
being  allowed  to  inspect  the  prisons  and  not  only  the  public 
prison  but  the  dungeons,  more  than  half  of  them  will  begin 
to  share  Gamarra's  doubts  of  you." 

"That  would  be  childish  and  absurd,"  Hawthorne  de 
clared.  "I  told  them  that  one  of  my  chief  prospects  of 
usefulness  was  that  I  might  hope  to  acquire  the  privilege 
of  entering  the  prison  freely.  I  attain  this  object  at  once 
and  you  tell  me  it  will  make  them  suspicious  of  me. 
I  think  better  of  them  than  that." 

Don  Vicente  sighed. 

"I  can  only  hope,"  he  said,  "that  you  will  find  your 
estimate  in  consonance  with  the  facts.  I  can  only  repeat 
my  warning  and  ask  you  to  heed  it." 

"One  of  your  warnings,"  Hawthorne  said,  "I  shall  heed. 
It  occurs  to  me  that  the  keeper  of  the  prison  might  doubt 
the  authenticity  of  this  permit.  You  are  so  astonished 
that  he  might  be  even  more  so,  might  regard  it  as  a 
forgery.  So  I  shall  go  to  the  Government  House  first 
and  ask  for  an  escort  to  identify  me  to  the  Chief  of  the 
prison. ' ' 

"That,"  said  Don  Vicente,  "will  make  the  men  you  met 
at  Dr.  Bargas'  yesterday  all  the  more  likely  to  suspect 
you." 

"If  they  are  so  foolish,"  Hawthorne  said,  "they  are  no 
confederates  for  me.  The  sooner  I  know  that  the  better. 
Certainly  I  am  going  to  the  Government  House  before  I 
go  to  the  prison." 

"In  that  case,"  Don  Vicente  said,  "we  have  plenty  of 


168  EL   SUPREMO 

time  to  call  on  Don  Bernardo,  who  is  an  early  riser,  before 
you  go  to  the  Palacio." 

"I  am  going  now,"  Hawthorne  said. 

"At  this  hour  !  '  *  Don  Vicente  said.  *  '  He  permits  no  on© 
to  enter  at  this  hour." 

'  '  He  gave  me  a  special  invitation  to  see  him  at  any  hour 
and  urged  me  to  avail  myself  of  the  favour,"  Hawthorne 
said. 

Mayorga  looked  really  scared. 

"The  sentinel,"  he  said,  "will  probably  shoot  you." 

"I'll  risk  it,"  Hawthorne  declared. 


At  the  Government  House  Hawthorne,  in  fact,  found  a 
sentinel  of  quite  a  different  type  from  the  one  who  had  been 
on  guard  the  day  before.  He  wore  a  similar  uniform,  but, 
instead  of  the  comparative  mildness  of  his  brother-in-arms, 
exhibited  a  domineering  ferocity,  ordered  Hawthorne  off, 
apparently  threatened  to  shoot  him,  manifestly  understood 
no  word  of  Spanish,  and,  when  Hawthorne  endeavoured  to 
make  himself  intelligible  with  what  little  Guarani  he  knew, 
began  to  bawl  as  if  for  help. 

Four  barefoot  soldiers  and  a  gold-laced  lieutenant  re 
sponded  to  the  call. 

The  sentinel  gabbled  some  Guarani,  the  lieutenant  gave 
an  order  in  the  same  tongue,  and  in  an  instant  Hawthorne 
was  pinioned  by  two  of  the  ruffians. 

As  he  did  not  resist,  he  was  not  much  mauled. 

The  lieutenant  took  away  his  hanger. 

Then  he  was  marched  into  the  courtyard. 

Francia  was  seated  by  his  table,  holding  something  in  his 
lap,  which  he  was  apparently  discussing  with  a  workman 
who  stood  before  him. 

Two  soldiers  stood  behind  the  workman  and  a  lieutenant, 
whose  back  Hawthorne  recognised  as  that  of  Zorilla,  was 
close  by. 

When  Hawthorne  was  about  halfway  across  the  patio 
Francia  looked  up. 

He  leapt  to  his  feet,  casting  from  him  what  he  was  hold 
ing,  and  uttered  a  short,  sharp  order  in  Guarani,  explo 
sive  as  a  dog's  bark. 


THE   PERMIT  169 

Hawthorne 's  captors  released  him  and  sprang  away  from 
him  as  if  he  had  been  red  hot. 

The  lieutenant  hastily  offered  him  his  hanger.  Haw 
thorne,  shaking  himself,  composedly  took  the  hanger  and 
belt  and  buckled  it  about  him. 

' '  Rivarola ! ' '  Francia  demanded.    * '  What  is  this  folly  ? ' ' 

"This  man "  the  lieutenant  began. 

* '  That  gentleman ! ' '  Francia  thundered  at  him. 

"This  gentleman,  Excellency,"  Rivarola  recommenced, 
' '  was  mistaken  by  the  sentry  for  a  man  acting  suspiciously. 
The  sentry  called  us,  and  I  was  bringing  him  before 
you." 

"Rivarola!"  said  the  Dictator  severely,  "you  are  an  ass, 
as  big  an  ass  as  the  rest  of  your  comrades. ' ' 

Rivarola  stood  abashed,  but  plainly  not  scared. 

"At  least,"  the  Dictator  remarked  drily,  "you  have  the 
courage  of  your  folly." 

"Don  Guillermo,"  he  continued,  "pray  approach  and  be 
seated.  No,  do  not  wait  for  me  to  be  seated;  sit  down 
while  I  stand. 

"Rivarola!"  he  went  on,  "call  all  the  guard,  call  all  my 
household!" 

They  trooped  into  the  courtyard,  some  thirty  soldiers, 
four  lieutenants  in  all,  Bopi,  the  fat  cook,  a  mulatto  barber, 
and  two  negro  boys. 

"Don  Guillermo,"  Francia  said,  "do  me  the  favour  to 
rise." 

When  Hawthorne  was  standing  Francia  addressed  the 
soldiers. 

*  *  Look  well  at  this  gentleman.  Look  well  enough  to  know 
him  again.  Look  well  enough  not  to  mistake  him  for  any 
one  else  or  any  one  else  for  him.  Attend  well  to  what  I 
am  about  to  say,  and  you,  Rivarola,  Iturbe,  Lopez  and 
Zorilla,  see  to  it  that  you  tell  your  fellows. 

"This  is  Seiior  Don  Guillermo  Atorno,  Americano  del 
Norte.  He  is  to  be  admitted  to  me  at  any  hour  by  day  or 
by  night.  Any  man  who  refuses  him  admission  shall  be 
shot,  as  shall  any  man  admitting  any  one  else  by  mistake 
for  him. 

"Now  go,  all  of  you!" 

Hawthorne  had  been  amusedly  conning  the  expressions 
of  the  four  lieutenants. 


ijo  EL   SUPREMO 

Zorilla  *s  lean,  hook-nosed  brown  face,  all  evil  malice 
and  malignant  cruelty,  showed  puzzled  amazement. 

Iturbe's  countenance  of  silly  vanity,  sallow  and  loose- 
lipped,  betrayed  an  ill-concealed  envy. 

Rivarola's  bluff,  healthy  stupidity  was  scarcely  altered 
by  a  shade  of  chagrin. 

Lopez,  a  flat-faced,  bullet-headed,  bull-necked  young 
man,  decidedly  fat,  remained  entirely  inscrutable. 

As  they  started  away,  Francia  called : 

' '  Not  you,  Zorilla !  Watch  this  bungler  here,  and  bring 
him  back  when  I  call. ' ' 

One  of  Zorilla 's  men  picked  up  from  the  pavement  the 
leather  belt  Francia  had  flung  there. 

When  they  were  entirely  alone  and  seated,  Francia 
leaned  toward  Hawthorne  and  asked : 

"Why  did  you  come?" 

1 1  First  of  all, ' '  Hawthorne  said, ' t  to  ask  about  my  clumsy 
surgery,  and  your  wound." 

' '  I  thought  as  much, ' '  Francia  replied,  ( '  and  that  is  why 
I  sent  them  all  away.  Your  dressing  was  effectual.  The 
slash  hurts  me  scarcely  at  all,  thanks  to  the  Guarani  eye- 
lotion. 

1  i  That  much  for  your  first,  and  what  is  your  secondly  ? ' ' 

"I  reflected,"  Hawthorne  said,  "that  your  jailer  might 
take  me  for  a  daring  forger  and  that  I  might  have  trouble 
with  so  astonishing  an  order.  So  I  came  to  request  that 
you  send  some  known  official  or  officer  with  me. ' ' 

"Not  a  bad  idea!"  Francia  agreed.  "If  one  of  my  Par 
aguayans  had  dared  to  suggest  it,  I  suppose  I  should  have 
flown  into  a  passion  with  him.  But  from  you  it  comes 
naturally.  Which  reminds  me  that  we  never  came  to  the 
point  of  our  conference  last  night.  You  must  be  very 
adroit  at  changing  the  subject." 

" Excelentisimo  Senor,"  Hawthorne  smiled,  "I  really  do 
not  think  I  had  anything  to  do  with  it.  We  left  the  track 
of  our  conversation  on  several  side  excursions.  I  may  say 
we  flew  out  of  our  orbit  at  a  sharp  tangent,  more  than  once. 
But  I  think  it  was  not  my  doing. ' ' 

"Very  likely,"  Francia  agreed.  "Put  it  down  to  my 
suspicious  nature  or  to  my  want  of  perspicacity  in  dealing 
with  so  meteoric  a  stranger.  At  any  rate,  we  must  finish 


THE   PERMIT  171 

that  conference,  and  soon.  "We  shall  both  need  a  long 
sleep  to-night,  before  Madrina  Juana  's  fiesta.  We  shall  be 
sleepy  aM  day  Friday  and  shall  sleep  all  Friday  night. 
So  come  Saturday  night,  if  you  come  no  sooner. 

"But  if  you  can  tear  yourself  away  from  the  fascina 
tions  of  Dr.  Bargas,  of  his  wine-shop  and  of  the  host  of  new 
friends  you  have  met  there,  come  Saturday  afternoon,  or 
even  this  afternoon  after  the  siesta  hour. ' ' 

Hawthorne,  noting  the  ironical  tone  of  the  Dictator  in 
what  he  said  of  Bargas'  wine-shop,  and  the  emphasis  on 
the  words,  'host  of  friends,'  was  somewhat  flustered  in 
ternally,  and  merely  bowed  without  any  word. 

' '  Good ! ' '  Francia  smiled  inscrutably.  ' * I  shall  look  for 
you.  And  now,  before  I  send  you  off  with  an  escort,  you 
can  decide  a  small  matter  for  me." 

* '  Zorilla ! ' '  he  called.  When  the  lieutenant  appeared  and 
saluted,  he  commanded: 

' '  Bring  that  bungler  back  here. ' ' 

The  workman,  his  elbows  gripped  by  the  two  soldiers, 
was  speedily  set  before  the  Dictator,  who  enquired : 

" Where  'is  that  belt? " 

When  it  was  handed  him,  he  displayed  it  to  Hawthorne. 

"You,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "are  a  foreigner  and 
impartial.  I  ask  you  to  inspect  this  belt  and  to  say  whether 
you  consider  it  well  sewn." 

Hawthorne  took  the  belt,  examined  it  with  care,  and 
replied : 

' '  I  know  nothing  of  the  methods  of  artisans  at  Asuncion. 
Each  country  has  its  own  traditions,  and  its  workmen  in 
herit  their  limitations.  But  in  my  country  I  should  call 
that  a  badly  sewn  belt. ' ' 

"You  have  spoken  most  fairly,"  Francia  said,  "and 
most  kindly  endeavoured  to  excuse  this  rascal  for  what  is 
no  result  of  faulty  training  but  merely  the  effect  of  care 
lessness  and  laziness." 

Then  he  addressed  the  workman. 

"Bribon,  this  belt  is  vile.    This  Senor  says  so." 

"I  care  not  what  any  man  says,  your  Excellency,"  the 
man  sullenly  replied.  ' '  I  have  done  my  best  for  your  Ex 
cellency.  I  can  do  no  better." 

Francia  turned  to  Hawthorne. 

"Behold,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "how  it  is  in  this 


(172  EL   SUPREMO 

Paraguay  of  mine!  No  man  tries  to  do  his  best.  Every 
man  tries  to  do  as  near  his  worst  as  he  dares.  Unless  I 
teach  them,  no  man  tries  to  better  the  poor  worst  his  in 
competence  produces.  Thus  it  is." 

He  turned  again  to  the  workman. 

<rYou  will  go  back  to  your  work-shop.  You  will  make 
two  more  belts.  You  will  bring  them  here  to-morrow  morn 
ing.  If  they  are  no  better  than  these,  I  shall  have  a  little 
surprise  for  you. ' ' 

"Whatever  you  may  have,  Excelentisimo  Senor,"  the 
man  doggedly  uttered,  "I  can  do  no  better." 

"We  shall  see,"  spoke  the  Dictator  drily. 

"Zorilla,"  he  continued,  "did  you  hang  those  rascals 
who  stabbed  the  old  man  at  Orrego's  pulperiaf" 

1 '  At  sunrise,  your  Excellency,  as  ordered. ' ' 

"They  are  hanging  on  the  gallows  now?"  Francia  que 
ried. 

"As  much  as  the  vultures  have  left  of  them,  your  Ex 
cellency,"  Zorilla  replied. 

"Good!"  said  Francia.  "You  will  see  your  men  con 
duct  this  rascal  to  his  work-shop.  Let  them  lead  him  there 
not  directly,  but  by  way  of  the  gibbet.  Let  them  lead  him 
under  it  a  dozen  times.  And  six  times  round  it.  Then 
let  them  stand  guard  over  his  shop  till  dawn,  at  dawn  let 
them  bring  him  back  here  with  the  belts  he  makes  to-day. 
Then  we  shall  see  whether  the  new  belts  are  better  than 
this.  You  may  change  the  guards  every  four  hours.  Tell 
them  to  shoot  him  if  he  tries  to  leave  his  shop  before  sun 
set  or  his  house  before  sunrise.  Go ! " 

As  the  men  tramped  off,  Francia  called : 

"Lopez!" 

The  fat  lieutenant  appeared  promptly. 

"Place  yourself,"  Francia  said  to  him,  "under  Don 
'Guillermo's  orders.  Escort  him  wherever  he  commands, 
and  see  that  whatever  he  wishes  is  done  as  he  signifies.  Re 
main  with  him  until  he  dismisses  you. ' ' 

(4) 

As  soon  as  they  had  passed  the  sentry  at  the  entrance  to 
the  Government  House  and  were  out  of  sight  of  Francia, 
Lopez  asked: 


THE   PERMIT  173 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,  what  are  your  commands?7* 

"First,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "I  wish  to  inspect  the 
public  prison." 

Lopez  stared  in  amazement,  but  uttered  no  word. 

Whereupon  Hawthorne  produced  Francia's  order  and 
handed  it  to  him  to  read. 

While  he  was  reading  and  rereading  it,  Hawthorne  sur 
veyed  him. 

He  was  a  young  man,  scarcely  more  than  a  lad.  His 
blue  coat,  with  its  superfluity  of  gold  lace  and  gold  braid, 
rather  became  him  under  his  cocked  hat,  with  its  tricolour 
cockade;  his  big,  pink  face,  with  very  small  brown  eyes, 
set  far  apart,  and  a  very  small  nose  fairly  engulfed  be 
tween  his  fat  cheeks,  seemed  almost  Indian  in  its  flatness. 
Yet  the  eyes  were  Spanish  eyes,  the  little  nose  altogether 
Castilian  in  outline,  and  the  lips  and  ears,  also  very  small, 
were  delicate  in  shape,  though  almost  lost  in  the  bigness  of 
the  face  and  head.  His  appearance  of  fatness  Hawthorne 
set  down  to  mere  healthy  plumpness  overlying  a  plentiful 
development  of  muscle  on  a  big  frame.  His  chest  girth  was 
enormous  for  his  height,  and  he  gave  the  impression  of 
great  strength. 

When  he  refolded  the  precious  scrap  of  paper  and 
handed  it  back  to  Hawthorne,  he  took  off  his  cocked  hat 
and  bowed  low. 

"Senor  Atorno,"  he  said,  "I  am  your  slave,  if  need  be. 
You  are  evidently  high  in  favour.  Shall  we  proceed  to 
the  prison?" 

"As  directly  as  possible,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

Lopez  turned  to  the  left  from  the  entrance  of  the  Gov 
ernment  House,  passed  the  landing  stairs  up  which  Haw 
thorne  had  climbed  when  he  came  ashore  from  Banfi's  brig 
two  days  before,  and  approached  the  Jesuits7  bridge  over 
the  neck  of  the  inlet. 

When  they  had  crossed  the  bridge,  Hawthorne  enquired 
of  his  guide : 

"Are  you  related  to  Don  Venancio  Lopez,  who  plays  so 
well  on  the  guitar  and  sings  so  charmingly?" 

"He  is  my  cousin,"  Lopez  replied,  "and  so  for  that 
matter  was  his  brother  Narciso,  who  was  shot  yes 
terday.  But  I  was  never  intimate  with  my  rich  cousins, 
and  am  not  any  more  proud  of  being  related  to  a  musi- 


1174  EL   SUPREMO 

cal  idler  than  I  was  of  being  kin  to  an  unconscionable 

rake." 

"You  are  like  them/'  Hawthorne  said,  "in  a  way." 
"That,  even  as  you  qualify  it/'  Lopez  laughed,  "is  a 

compliment.     For  Don  Venancio  is  very  handsome,  and 

Narciso   was   almost   terrifying  he   was   so   good-looking. 

There  was  something  supernatural,  as  it  were,  about  his 

good  looks." 

At  that  instant,  as  they  were  halfway  across  the  open 
space  beyond  the  bridge,  and  approaching  the  Dominican 
convent  on  their  right  between  them  and  the  river-bank, 
their  attention  was  attracted  by  a  dozen  or  more  street 
boys  who  were  yelling  and  dancing  about  in  the  space  be 
fore  the  convent,  tormenting  a  very  big  and  very  angry 
man. 

He  was  so  angry,  had  so  completely  lost  his  tem 
per,  that  he  was  engaged  in  futile  and  hopeless  efforts 
to  catch  one  or  the  other  of  them,  and  whichever  one 
he  chased,  his  attention  was  continually  distracted  to  one 
of  the  rest. 

They  were  yelling: 

" Zapo!  Zapo!"  at  the  top  of  their  shrill  voices,  and 
circling  about  their  victim,  a  bevy  of  barefoot,  bareheaded 
little  brown  urchins,  not  one  wearing  anything  more  than 
a  cotton  shirt  and  cotton  breeches. 

Their  butt  was  a  huge  mountain  of  a  man,  his  bare  feet 
in  loose  flapping  slippers,  his  wide  trousers  supported  by 
a  red  sash,  wound  very  low  about  an  enormous  paunch 
which  swagged  and  swayed  under  a  vast  expanse  of  dirty 
cotton  shirt.  The  sleeves  of  the  shirt  were  rolled  up  nearly 
to  his  armpits,  its  neck  open  to  below  his  breast  bone,  dis 
playing  a  great  hairy  chest  and  brawny,  fleshy,  sun-tanned 
arms,  over  one  of  which  hung-  a  gaudy,  greasy  jacket  of 
cheap  calico.  Out  of  his  red  sash  stuck  the  brass  hilt  of  a 
sailor's  knife.  He  wore  no  hat,  but  a  greasy  red  Barcelona 
liberty-cap  of  knit  silk  was  half  drawn  over  his  shock  of 
black  curls. 

He  was  sweating  profusely  with  his  rage  and  exertions, 
bellowing  and  roaring  at  the  boys,  his  face  all  beads  of 
sweat,  his  curses  prolonged  by  stammerings  and  stutter- 
ings,  each  oath  ending  in  a  choking  growl. 


THE    PERMIT  175 

The  boys  circled  about,  shrieking : 

"Zapo!    Zapo!" 

At  a  word  from  Lopez  they  scampered  off. 

The  obese  giant  puffed  his  thanks,  still  stuttering  and 
stammering. 

"Don  Benigno,"  he  said,  in  Spanish,  with  a  very  Bis- 
cayan  accent,  "those  scoundrels  ought  to  be  shot." 

"They  certainly  ought  to  be  thrashed,  Curro,"  Lopez 
replied.  "But  you  ought  not  to  give  them  the  satisfaction 
of  noticing  them.  And  what  are  you  doing  so  far  from 
your  yards  ? ' ' 

"I  went  over  to  Soloaga  V  the  Basque  replied,  "to  bor-« 
row  an  adze.  But  the  fool  will  send  it  to-morrow,  manana 
means  never  with  Soloaga." 

Lopez  thereupon,  as  gravely  as  if  he  had  been  a  Bon 
Gregorio  de  la  Cerda,  presented  the  hulk  as : 

"Don  Pancho  Eiquelme,  Asuncion's  chief  ship-build 
er." 

"  Ch-ch-ch-charmed  to  meet  you,  Senor  Don  Guillermo," 
the  stuttering  giant  roared,  crushing  Hawthorne's  out 
stretched  hand  in  his  huge  paw. 

He  stood  puffing;  rummaged  in  the  pocket  of  his  pen 
dant  calico  jacket;  produced  a  tobacco  pouch;  performed 
the  feat,  very  general  in  Asuncion,  as  Hawthorne  after 
wards  learned,  of  rolling  a  cigarette  with  one  hand ;  offered 
it  in  turn  to  Hawthorne  and  Lopez ;  on  their  both  declin 
ing,  stuck  it  in  his  mouth,  took  a  tinder-box  from  another 
jacket-pocket,  struck  fire,  and  lighted  his  cigarette;  re 
turned  the  pouch  and  tinder-box  to  their  places,  and  stut 
tered  : 

"I  must  be  off!" 

He  waddled  off  out  of  sight  round  the  corner  of  the  con 
vent  as  they  turned  into  Calle  San  Domingo. 

"A  character,  Senor  Don  Benigno,"  Hawthorne  re 
marked. 

"You'll  know  him  better,  if  you  are  long  in  Asuncion, 
Lopez  replied.  "His  puffy  shape  and  blotched  and  bloated 
surface  have  won  for  him  the  nickname  of  'Toad'  these 
ten  years ;  but  the  name  always  makes  him  furious,  though 
many  people  call  him  even  'Senor  Zapo,'  the  nickname  has 
so  supplanted  his  own." 

After  they  passed  the  first  cross-street  the  whole  west 


176  EL   SUPREMO 

side  of  Calle  San  Domingo  was  all  one  long  low  building, 
which,  Hawthorne  divined,  could  only  be  the  prison. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE  PRISONS 

THE  prison,  in  fact,  sprawled  along  the  broad  flat  top 
of  a  low  hill  between  the  inlet  and  the  upper  part  of 
Payagua  brook.  It  was  nearly  two  hundred  feet  long,  half 
very  old,  dating  from  Irala's  time,  half  built  by  Espinosa 
to  hold  the  overflow  when  his  severities  more  than  filled 
the  older  portion.  It  was  all  one  low  story,  tile-roofed, 
with  white- washed  stone  walls  and  heavily  barred  windows, 
about  two  feet  wide  and  a  yard  high,  set  well  up  towards 
the  projecting  eaves  of  the  red  roof,  so  that  their  sills  were 
all  of  ten  feet  from  the  street  level. 

Lopez  spoke  with  the  sentinel  in  Guarani.  The  felloe 
called  another  like  himself,  who  shuffled  off  and  returned 
wfth  the  Governor. 

He,  to  Hawthorne's  astonishment,  was  a  handsome  Cas- 
tilian,  with  tiny  feet,  a  trim  figure,  small,  delicate  hands,  a 
graceful  bearing  and  a  face  made  up  of  features  individ 
ually  faultless  and  collectively  producing  an  effect  of  re 
finement,  self-respect  and  warm-hearted  sympathy  towards 
all  mankind.  He  was  as  unlike  as  possible  to  anything  one 
would  imagine  suiting  his  office.  Also  he  was  always  smil 
ing. 

Lopez  introduced  him  as  Don  Ruy  Gomez,  addressed  him 
as  "Don  Ruy"  and  he  Lopez  as  "Don  Benigno."  He  was, 
as  Hawthorne  quickly  discovered,  not  only  Governor,  but 
chief  jailer  and  head  turnkey. 

He  examined  the  permit  with  a  sort  of  pleased  interest, 
beamed  congratulations,  as  it  were,  upon  Hawthorne,  and 
assured  "Sefior  Don  Guillermo"  that  all  things  under  his 
charge  were  at  his  disposition. 

Inside  the  prison  the  court  was  about  thirty  feet  wide 
and  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long,  enclosed  on  one 
end  and  one  side  by  a  white-washed  stone  wall  fully  twenty 
feet  high.  At  the  other  end  was  a  tall,  strong  palisade  of 
quebracho-wood  stakes,  set  about  four  inches  apart,  spiked 


THE   PRISONS  177 

to  a  cross-beam  more  than  nine  feet  from  the  ground,  and 
sharpened  at  their  tops.  On  the  fourth  side  of  the  court 
opened  the  seven  doors  of  the  seven  prison  rooms  or  com 
mon  cells. 

These  Hawthorne  minutely  inspected  one  by  one.  The 
tie-beams  of  the  low-pitched  roof  rested  on  the  tops  of  the 
walls  some  fourteen  feet  from  the  floor.  There  was  no 
ceiling,  but  the  blackened,  cob  webbed  rafters  and  joists 
showed  dingy  and  dusty  as  the  rough  scantlings  and  the 
chinky,  cement-daubed  crude  tiles  over  the  scantlings. 

The  walls,  indeed,  rose  no  higher  than  the  tie-beams  be 
tween  the  twenty-foot  cells,  so  that  there  was  a  continuous 
air-space  under  the  tiles.  But  this  was  little  alleviation  to 
wretches  baked  by  day  under  a  roof  that  sizzled  beneath  a 
cloudless  sun,  and  suffocated  at  night  when  all  the  doors 
were  shut  fast. 

The  floors  were  mere  tramped  earth,  every  inch  of  it 
foul ;  the  walls,  greasy  and  rubbed  to  a  glaze  by  contact  of 
sweaty  bodies,  for  some  five  feet  from  the  floor,  were 
streaked  with  the  dried  slime  of  many  rains  over  their 
traces  of  old  white- wash. 

Each  cell  was  crowded  with  some  twenty  or  thirty  hide 
cots  and  hung  with  ten  or  more  hammocks  stretched  from 
hooks  driven  into  the  cement  between  the  wall-stones. 

The  prisoners  were  all  wearing  shackles,  consisting  of  a 
heavy  ring  riveted  on  each  ankle,  the  two  connected  by 
two  long  bar  links.  Fettered  thus,  they  sat  or  lay  listlessly 
on  the  cots,  all  thin,  pale  and  sallow,  all  dirty,  all  in  rags, 
a  pitiful  hundred  and  fifty  or  more.  Not  one  seemed  to 
have  any  individuality  or  interested  Hawthorne  in  the 
slightest  degree. 

More  than  half  the  prisoners  were  soldiers,  low  ruffians, 
privates  who  had  reported  for  duty  unfit  for  service,  mostly 
from  drunkenness,  and  had  been  ordered  twenty  to  fifty 
lashes  and  two  to  six  months  in  the  prison  as  a  punishment. 

They  showed  their  backs  scarred  or  raw,  according  to 
the  time  that  had  elapsed  since  their  offence.  All  were 
doggedly  sullen,  but  not  one  but  confessed  that  he  was  en 
tirely  at  fault  and  the  punishment  just. 

But  in  respect  to  the  residue,  Hawthorne  mentally  re 
marked  that  either  conditions  had  changed  amazingly  since 
Beltran  had  left  Paraguay,  which  seemed  impossible,  judg- 


EL   SUPREMO 

ing  by  the  age  of  the  prisoners,  or  Beltran  had  been  speak 
ing  with  some  mental  reservations,  when  he  had  said  that 
no  one  ever  stole  anything  in  Asuncion.  Here  were  petty 
thieves,  to  a  certainty,  among  the  loafers;  gamblers  and 
dram-house  fighters.  Hawthorne  knew  the  types  from  va 
ried  experience  of  prisoners. 

The  inmates  of  the  seven  general  cells  one  and  all  begged 
for  tobacco.  Hawthorne  had  none,  and  knew  a  pocketful 
of  cigars  would  be  worse  than  nothing.  But  in  each  cell 
he  gave  Gomez  a  silver  dollar,  the  local  piastre  or  peso,  to 
spend  in  tobacco  for  the  prisoners  in  that  cell. 

Gomez  remarked : 

"  I  '11  make  that  last.  One  quarter  of  what  that  will  buy 
will  be  all  I'll  give  them  at  once." 

In  each  cell  a  dozen  or  more  voices  chorused  their  thanks, 
adding  : 

"We're  sure  to  get  all  that  will  buy  us.  Don  Ruy  is  as 
good  to  us  as  he  can  manage. ' ' 

When  he  had  come  out  of  the  last  cell  he  inspected  the 
patio.  In  the  courtyard,  along  the  wall,  were  several  crazy 
wattled  huts  thatched  with  palm-leaves;  one  fairly  large, 
one  medium-sized,  and  the  rest  tiny. 

The  large  hut  he  found  tenanted  by  five  mulattoes,  their 
skins  a  sort  of  lead-grey  from  confinement  and  idleness. 
The  medium-sized  hut  held  three  negroes,  one  fairly  fleshy, 
but  all  three  ash-colour.  The  smaller  huts  each  held  one 
prisoner. 

The  first  was  plainly  an  ecclesiastic  of  some  sort. 

Hawthorne  asked  Gomez  his  name. 

The  handsome  little  Spaniard  pursed  his  lips  and  looked 
doubtful. 

"The  order,"  he  demurred,  "instructs  me  to  treat  you 
in  all  respects  as  if  you  were  El  Supremo  in  person.  Now, 
El  Supremo  has  never  on  any  occasion  asked  me  to  tell  him 
the  name  of  a  prisoner." 

"If  El  Supremo  asked  you  to  tell  him  the  name  of  a 
prisoner,"  Hawthorne  queried  impatiently,  "would  you 
not  obey  him?" 

' '  I  should  obey  him,  if  he  ordered  me  to  tell  the  n&me  of 
a  prisoner,  as  I  obey  him  in  all  things, ' '  Gomez  hastened  to 
assert;  "but  in  this  case  he  has  ordered  me  to  treat  you  as 
I  should  treat  him,  that  can  only  mean  to  treat  you  as  I 


THE   PRISONS  179 

have  always  treated  him.  Now,  he  never  at  any  time  has 
asked  me  to  tell  the  name  of  a  prisoner.  To  tell  you  the 
name  of  a  prisoner  would  he  treating  you  as  I  have  never 
treated  El  Supremo.  Therefore,  I  dare  not  tell  you  the 
name  of  any  prisoners.  El  Supremo  might  have  me  shot 
for  going  heyond  the  orders  given  me  and  acting  presump 
tuously  on  my  own  responsibility." 

Hawthorne  turned  questioningly  to  Lopez. 

"He  is  quite  right,"  Lopez  declared.  "He  might  cer 
tainly  be  running  the  risk  of  being  shot,  if  he  told  you  any 
prisoner's  name.  There  is  nothing  about  telling  prisoners' 
names  on  the  order.  Only  that  he  is  to  treat  you  as  if  El 
Supremo  in  person. 

"But,"  Lopez  added,  after  a  pause,  "you  might  ask  the 
prisoner  himself. ' ' 

Gomez  brightened  at  this. 

* '  True, ' '  he  exclaimed, '  *  El  Supremo  has  sometimes  asked 
a  prisoner  his  name. J ' 

Hawthorne  at  once  entered  the  hut  and  introduced  him 
self,  saying: 

"My  name  is  Guillermo  Atorno.  I  am  from  the  Estar 
dos  Unidos  del  America  del  Norte.  By  courtesy  of 
the  Dictator,  as  a  foreigner,  I  am  accorded  permission 
to  inspect  his  prisons.  I  desire,  Father,  to  know  your 
name. ' ' 

"My  son,"  said  the  friar,  a  short  man  much  shrunken 
and  fallen  in  but  still  f attish,  "  I  am  called  Fray  Dalmacio 
Taboada.  At  least,  that  was  my  name  before  I  was  brought 
here.  Having  lost  all  else,  I  do  not  know  whether  I  have 
any  longer  a  right  even  to  my  name." 

After  talking  a  short  time  with  the  sarcastic  friar,  Haw 
thorne  bade  him  farewell  and  left  him. 

Gazing  at  the  row  of  huts,  he  had  an  inspiration.  He 
called  sharply: 

"Ramon  Perez!" 

From  the  third  hut  came  a  young  man,  in  every  linea 
ment  and  outline  the  usual  would-be-gentlemanly  loafer  of 
any  or  every  Spanish- American  town. 

His  manners,  of  course,  were  excellent.  Hawthorne 
talked  with  him  for  some  time,  and  then  passed  on. 

The  occupant  of  the  hut  next  to  Perez  was  manifestly  by 
descent  and  nature  what  Perez  aspired  to  be,  one  of  those 


i8o  EL   SUPREMO 

gilded  youths  of  the  blooded  aristocracy  whose  dress,  man 
ners  and  vices  weaklings  like  Perez  aped.  He  turned  his 
head  languidly  as  they  entered  the  hut,  and  Hawthorne 
had  a  glimpse  of  his  profile,  which  caused  him  to  enquire, 
after  introducing  himself : 

' '  Is  your  name  Caballero,  Senor  ? ' ' 

The  youth  was  sulky  but  not  reticent. 

"My  name,"  he  said,  "is  Angel  Marecos." 

"Your  mother  was  a  Caballero?"  Hawthorne  hazarded. 

' '  My  grandmother  was  a  Caballero, ' '  Don  Angel  replied. 
"But  my  mother's  name  was  Francia." 

Hawthorne  was  startled  and,  to  create  a  diversion,  offered 
him  a  cigar,  which  he  accepted,  lit,  and  at  once  showed 
himself  to  be  loquacious,  even  loose-tongued. 

*  *  I  am  not  afraid  of  him, ' '  he  said ;  "  let  him  do  his  worst. 
My  brother  Francisco  and  I  were  volunteers  the  day  after 
the  pronunciamento.  Both  of  us  were  promoted  in  the 
course  of  the  skirmishing  while  Don  Atanacio  was  driving 
the  Porteiios  southward.  We  returned  to  Asuncion  lieu 
tenants,  and  there  were  no  more  capable  lieutenants  in  the 
army.  After  he  was  inaugurated  Consul,  we  supposed  our 
fortunes  were  made.  We  looked  for  captaincies,  at  least. 
But  the  old  fool  dismissed  us  both  from  the  army  the  first 
week,  saying  that  he  would  have  no  blood  kin  of  his  officers 
of  his  army,  for  fear  they  might  presume  on  the  relation 
ship. 

"We  thought  that  a  pretext.  So  did  our  friends,  and 
called  us  'heirs  apparent'  and  'infantes.'  We  looked  for 
ward  to  a  life  of  ease,  consideration  and  influence;  later, 
of  power.  We  were  rudely  undeceived.  Of  course,  every 
body  in  Asuncion  was  most  eager  for  our  favour,  quick  to 
oblige  us  in  any  way,  to  fulfil,  even  to  anticipate,  our 
every  wish. 

"The  band-master  of  the  guards  knew  what  windows  I 
serenaded.  He  suggested  to  me  that  a  picked  quartette  or 
sextette  of  his  best  musicians  might  be  a  pleasing  variety 
after  many  nights  of  merely  my  voice  and  guitar.  I  agreed 
of  course,  jumped  at  the  chance. 

1 '  The  old  fool  heard  of  it ;  had  me  and  the  band-master 
arrested ;  confronted  us  with  all  the  band ;  ferreted  out  the 
truth ;  had  the  six  musicians  given  twenty  lashes  apiece  and 
a  month  here  in  irons ;  the  band-master  got  fifty  lashes  and 


THE   PRISONS  181 

three  months  in  prison.  I  got  off  without  any  lashes,  but  I 
have  been  here  six  months  and  may  stay  here  for  life  for 
all  I  know. " 

The  inmates  of  the  remaining  huts  Hawthorne  found 
Creoles  of  more  or  less  gentlemanly  appearance.  Each  he 
questioned,  introducing  himself  as  before. 

The  prisoner  in  the  last  hut  was  Don  Cristobal  de  Maria, 
of  whose  indiscretion  Mayorga  had  told  Hawthorne.  Don 
Cristobal  was  less  pale  and  sallow  than  any  one  else  in  the 
prison,  and  was  by  no  means  thin.  Hawthorne  talked  with 
him  alone,  for  he  peremptorily  told  Lopez  and  Gomez  to 
withdraw  to  the  other  end  of  the  court,  which  they  did  at 
once,  Gomez  remarking: 

"El  Supremo  has  many  times  given  me  that  order  when 
visiting  his  prison." 

Don  Cristobal  was  very  much  on  his  guard,  but  too  en 
tirely  a  Castilian  gentleman  to  show  either  fear  or  suspi 
cion.  In  word  and  tone  he  was  perfectly  frank  and 
straightforward.  Hawthorne  assured  him  he  would  do 
what  he  could  to  procure  his  release.  The  poor  Don  was 
at  this  all  in  a  tremble.  Plainly  he  was  cruelly  torn  by 
the  dilemma  as  to  whether  Hawthorne  was  a  tool  of  the 
Dictator,  laying  some  trap  for  him,  or  a  genuine  friend, 
showing  him  a  ray  of  hope. 

Hawthorne's  demeanour  and  his  account  of  his  past,  of 
the  state  of  Europe,  of  conditions  at  Buenos  Aires  and 
along  the  river,  of  his  reception  at  Don  Vicente's  and  by 
Dr.  Bargas,  won  the  old  Don's  confidence.  He  thawed,  and 
his  feelings  carried  him  away  in  a  sort  of  freshet  of  trust 
fulness,  in  which  he  forgot  himself  wholly,  and  volubly 
warned  Hawthorne,  in  husky  whispers,  of  the  danger  of 
any  intervention  in  his  behalf. 

When  he  had  won  his  confidence,  Hawthorne  asked : 

"How  long  have  you  worn  these  fetters?" 

"Only  since  yesterday,"  Don  Cristobal  replied;  "when 
Don  Alberta  Chilaber  escaped  from  this  cuartel  we  were  all 
threatened  with  grilles.  Up  to  yesterday  only  those  pris 
oners  were  shackled  who  are  sometimes  taken  out  to  work 
on  the  streets.  Yesterday  Zorilla  and  some  of  his  men  came 
here,  and  most  of  them  spent  the  entire  day  riveting  shack 
les  on  all  who  were  still  unfettered.''* 

Hawthorne  spoke  of  having  seen  Chilaber  with  his  cap- 


182  EL   SUPREMO 

tors.  He  talked  some  time  with  the  old  Don,  and  left  him 
a  little  cheered. 

Then  he  beckoned  Gomez  again  and  approached  the  stock 
ade.  He  peered  between  the  stakes  of  the  palisade.  He 
saw  a  portion  of  the  courtyard,  some  thirty  feet  by  twenty, 
a  single  door  opening  on  it,  and  one  hut  built  in  the  corner 
where  the  two  outer  walls  met. 

Across  the  entrance  of  the  hut  sprawled  an  old,  white- 
wooled,  toothless  and  very  hideous  negress,  who  had  once 
been  exceedingly  obese,  and  was  still  grossly  misshapen  in 
a  flaccid  sort  of  way,  as  if  her  flesh  had  shrunken  and  left 
her  skin  incompletely  filled. 

In  the  doorway  of  the  one  cell  lolled  a  soft-skinned  girl 
of  Galician  appearance,  her  black  hair  tousled,  her  expres 
sion  mingled  of  vacuous  stupidity  and  shameless  impu 
dence,  her  red  mouth  hanging  open,  her  tupoi  pulled  up 
well  above  her  bent  knees. 

Against  the  wall  of  the  court,  on  a  hide  cot,  sat  a  pretty 
Guarani  woman,  looking  like  a  well-to-do  young  matron. 
She  was  suckling  a  baby.  Before  her  knelt  a  mulatto  girl 
with  a  flat  copper  basin  and  a  bit  of  cotton  cloth  with 
which  she  was  bathing  her  feet. 

4 'You  wish  also  to  inspect  the  women's  quarters?"  Gomez 
enquired. 

"I  do,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"In  that  case,"  Gomez  informed  him,  "you  will  enter 
alone.  El  Supremo  always  questions  the  women  without 
any  one  accompanying  him." 

He  jingled  his  huge  keys,  unlocked  the  three  padlocks  of 
the  wicket,  admitted  Hawthorne  to  the  enclosure,  and 
snapped  the  padlocks  behind  him. 

Hawthorne  first  entered  the  common  cell,  the  girl  mak 
ing  way  for  him  with  a  sidling  leer. 

The  cell  was  like  those  of  the  male  prisoners,  though  less 
filthy.  It  contained  but  four  hammocks  and  eight  hide 
cots,  so  there  was  some  room  between.  Its  inmates  were 
one  negress,  young  and  not  repulsive  of  countenance;  two 
mulattoes,  apparently  mother  and  daughter,  and  nine  white 
ttomen,  mostly  young. 

The  nine  were  all  of  one  unmistakable  class.  The  effront 
ery  of  their  demeanour  and  the  dirty  indecency  of  their 
slatternly  undress  disgusted  Hawthorne  about  equally. 


THE   PRISONS  183 

Somehow  he  was  still  more  revolted  at  the  high  filigree 
combs  of  gilt  brass  which  two  of  them  wore  in  their  greasy 
black  hair. 

He  went  into  the  courtyard  and  approached  the  hut. 
The  negress  showed  no  disposition  to  make  way  for  him, 
and  snarled  at  him  like  an  angry  dog. 

She  spoke  in  Guarani,  but  he  understood  the  few  low, 
emphatic  words. 

* '  The  lady  is  in  there.    Go  away. ' ' 

Gomez,  from  the  other  side  of  the  palisade,  must  have 
been  listening  with  all  his  ears,  for  he  called  through  the 
bars  to  the  negress,  who  sullenly  moved  aside  and  per 
mitted  Hawthorne  to  enter  the  hut.  There  was  a  hide  co,t 
opposite  the  door,  and  on  it  sat  a  tall  girl  bolt-upright,  as 
if  just  startled  awake. 

Hawthorne  forgot  everything  else. 

She  did  not  seem  to  him  a  Creole,  or  a  Spaniard. 

She  looked  English. 

She  was  tall,  her  hair  not  quite  golden  hair  but  very 
nearly  golden.  Her  skin  was  decidedly  fair  and,  while  she 
was  pale,  she  was  not  in  the  least  sallow,  but  a  downright 
healthy  pink.  Her  eyes  were  a  bright,  clear  blue,  her  nose 
straight  and  thin,  her  little  ears  set  high  up  and  far  back. 
She  was  almost  a  beauty,  very  lovely  to  look  at,  and  very 
girlish. 

She  wore  a  plain  cotton  tupoi.  Her  white  stockings  and 
low  black  slippers  were  very  visible,  as  the  tupoi  was  too 
short  for  her. 

In  fact,  she  was,  when  Hawthorne's  eyes  fell  on  her,  in 
the  act  of  trying  to  pull  her  gown  so  as  to  hide  her  very 
well-turned  ankles, 

She  blushed  the  first  blush  of  shame  or  embarrassment 
Hawthorne  had  seen  on  any  woman  at  Asuncion. 

He  stood  petrified  with  admiration,  astonishment  and 
sympathy. 

"Do  you  speak  English?"  he  blurted  out  in  English. 

His  eyes  were  on  her  face,  and  he  saw  a  change  of  ex 
pression.  But  the  alteration,  if  any  there  were,  was  too 
slight  for  him  to  be  certain  of  it. 

She  stood  up,  very  straight. 

"The  Sefior,"  she  said,  in  exceedingly  correct  Spanish, 
but  in  Spanish  with  an  intonation  neither  Castilian,  Gali- 


184  EL   SUPREMO 

cian,  Catalan,  Andalusian,  Murcian  nor  Granadan,  "speaks 
a  language  I  do  not  understand." 

"I  beg  your  pardon,"  Hawthorne  spoke  in  Spanish. 
* '  What  is  your  name  ? ' ' 

"My  name?"  she  echoed.  "Senor,  I  am  not  sure  I  am 
allowed  to  tell  you  my  name.  So  many  things  are  forbid 
den  one  in  this 'Paraguay  that  it  is  not  safe  to  assume  any 
thing  permitted.  It  is  best,  I  have  found,  to  consider  all 
things  forbidden,  except  those  expressly  authorized.  I 
have  not  been  expressly  permitted  to  tell  you  my  name." 

"Am  I  to  address  you  as  Senora  or  Seiiorita?"  Haw 
thorne  queried. 

"That  also,"  the  girl  replied,  "is  one  of  the  countless 
things  which  have  not  been  permitted  me  to  tell.  I  feel  I 
have  too  little  covering  for  my  ankles,  but  I  have  no  de 
sire  to  have  them  hidden  by  grillos.  They  ^have  riveted 
grillos  on  all  the  men.  Perhaps  we  women  will  wear  them 
also,  if  we  are  not  careful." 

She  stood  gazing  steadily  at  Hawthorne.  She  was  tall, 
tall  as  a  man ;  so  tall  that  there  was  little  space  between  her 
fair  hair  and  the  crazy  roof  of  the  hut. 

No  light  entered  except  by  the  door  and  the  chinks,  yet 
so  violent  was  the  glare  of  the  daylight  outside  that  she 
was,  as  it  were,  haloed  in  radiance.  Hawthorne  felt  as  if 
he  were  in  some  vast  shrine  before  the  deity  for  whom  it 
was  builded.  He  felt  small  and  humble  before  her,  yet 
blest  in  her  presence.  The  thought  of  this  radiant  lady 
housed  in  a  foul  hut,  herded  with  the  trulls  he  had  recoiled 
from  in  the  vile  cell,  shot  Hawthorne  through  with  solici 
tude. 

He  spoke  earnestly : 

"I  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  much  favoured  by  El 
Supremo.  My  word  has  weight  with  him.  I  believe  I 
could  influence  him  to  release  you  from  this  horrible  prison. 
Surely  you  cannot  wish  to  remain  here.  But  I  can  hardly 
hope  to  do  anything  to  assist  you,  though  I  am  most  will 
ing  to  be  of  service  to  you,  unless  I  know  your  name.  You 
may  trust  me.  Tell  me  your  story  and  let  me  try  to  help 
you." 

The  girl  gazed  at  him  as  steadily  as  before.  Her  expres 
sion  did  not  alter,  and  when  she  spoke  her  tone  was  even. 
But  her  words  were  sarcastic. 


THE   PRISONS  185 

1 '  Senor, '  '  she  said,  ' '  you  are  much  blest  to  stand  high  in 
favour  with  El  Supremo.  Surely,  all  his  friends  are  to  be 
trusted,  and  I  should  tell  you  my  story  at  once,  all  my 
story,  keeping  back  nothing,  since  you  are  his  friend  and 
tell  me  so.  But  I  am  not  at  all  sure  that  it  is  permitted  me 
to  tell  all  my  story  to  the  first  stranger  who  asks  it,  even 
if  he  gives  himself  out  as  a  friend  of  El  Supremo's,  and 
must  be  somewhat  of  what  he  claims,  since  he  enters  here 
fed,  clothed  and  washed  and  shows  on  his  face  full  confi 
dence  that  he  may  pass  out  again  whenever  he  wishes;  I 
am  by  no  means  sure  that  it  is  permitted  nor  am  I  sure  it 
would  be  wise.  Even  if  you  are  all  you  pretend,  other  ears 
might  hear.  Ears  of  those  less  friendly  than  you  claim  to 
be.  I  do  not  admit  that  I  have  any  story  to  tell  or  any 
name  to  disclose  to  you.  I  admit  nothing,  as  to  myself, 
not  even  that  I  wish  to  escape  from  this  prison,  which  you 
justly  call  horrible.  I  know  it  is  horrible,  but  there  are 
worse  prisons  in  Paraguay,  there  are  also  gibbets  and  ~ban- 
quillos  and  graves.  And  there  are  worse  things  in  Para 
guay  than  the  worst  of  those.  I  am  very  well  off  where  I 
am,  compared  with  the  worst  that  might  befall  me  else 
where." 

Hawthorne  met  her  steady  gaze  with  a  gaze  as  steady. 

"Senora  or  Senorita,"  he  said,  "whichever  I  should  call 
you,  you  distrust  me;  but  you  shall  trust  me  before  long 
and  thank  me  from  your  heart  before  I  am  done  with  you. 
Many  motives  brought  me  to  Paraguay,  chief  among  them 
that  I  hoped  to  make  my  fortune  here.  But  as  I  sailed  up 
the  river  or  fretted  during  our  endless  waits,  I  reflected 
upon  my  motives,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  was  drawn  to 
Asuncion  by  some  instinct  stronger  than  any  reason,  by 
an  irresistible  attraction.  I  have  found  out  why  I  came  to 
Asuncion.  It  was  that  I  might  serve  you,  rescue  you  from 
this  prison  and  give  you  all  the  desires  of  your  heart.  I 
go  now,  to  begin  whatever  must  be  done  to  bring  about  your 
release  and  to  ensure  your  welfare.  I  shall  not  ask  you 
to  trust  me  until  you  cannot  help  but  trust  me.  Meanwhile, 
whether  you  believe  it  or  not,  you  have  at  least  one  friend 
in  Asuncion." 

The  girl's  gaze  was  as  steady  as  before. 

She  gave  him  an  ironical  little  bow  and  curtsey. 

"One  should  be  glad  anywhere  on  earth,"  she  said,  "to 


i86  EL   SUPREMO 

hear  any  living  creature  declare  himself  amicable;  espe 
cially  when  one  knows  of  no  other  human  being  whom  one 
might  claim  as  friend.  Yet  I  am  not  glad.  You  say  I  shall 
yet  trust  you.  I  doubt  it,  Seilor.  If  I  am  ever  glad,  here 
in  Asuncion,  to  hear  any  friend  of  El  Supremo,  any  one 
high  in  his  favour,  call  himself  my  friend,  I  shall  be  greatly 
astonished. 

"But  I  am  glad  of  one  thing  you  say.  You  say  you  are 
about  to  go.  That,  Sefior,  makes  me  glad.  I  have  no  home, 
Senor.  But  this  is  my  abode.  You  imply  that  you  are  far 
from  your  home.  But  you  must  have  some  abode  in  Asun 
cion,  Seilor,  some  dwelling  at  which  the  favours  of  El  Su 
premo  will  know  where  to  find  you.  Will  you  not  now  go 
to  that  abode,  Senor,  and  leave  me  in  undisturbed  posses 
sion  of  mine,  such  as  it  is  ? ' ' 

Hawthorne,  choking,  bowed  and  withdrew  from  the  hut. 

At  sight  of  his  face  Gomez  made  haste  to  unlock  and 
unbar  the  wicket. 

"You  have  spent  all  the  time  you  desire  in  the  women's 
prison,  Senor  f"  he  queried. 

*  '  All, ' '  Hawthorne  replied.  ' '  And  all  I  wish  to  spend  in 
the  men's  prison." 

Yet  he  delayed  long  enough  to  enquire  of  Gomez  as  to  the 
feeding  of  the  prisoners,  and  was  told  that  they  were  sup 
plied  with  all  the  mate  they  could  drink,  with  oranges,  as 
many  as  they  could  eat,  with  chipd  in  abundance,  and  with 
stews  at  noon,  except  on  Fridays  and  fast  days,  when  they 
were  given  boiled  fish,  generally  barbudo,  which  is  cat-fish. 

Outside,  he  made  the  circuit  of  the  prison,  and  observed 
the  sentry-boxes  on  the  other  side  of  the  patio  wall,  the 
sentry-path  along  it,  and  the  pacing  Guarani  sentries. 

Lopez,  watching  his  face,  knew  precisely  when  to  en 
quire  : 

' l  What  orders,  Senor  Don  Guillermo  ? ' ' 

"To  all  the  other  prisons,"  Hawthorne  answered.  "Be 
ginning  with  the  nearest" 

' '  There  are  only  the  dungeons, ' '  Lopez  replied. 

As  they  walked  along,  Hawthorne  enquired  how  so  gen 
tlemanly  a  being  as  Gomez  came  to  be  keeper  of  the  prison. 
Lopez  explained  that  he  had  killed  his  own  brother  in  a 
quarrel  over  a  game  of  cards,  had  been  sentenced  to  be 
hanged,  but  had  been  pardoned  on  condition  of  serving  as 


THE   PRISONS  187 

jailer,  the  pardon  amounting  to  an  indeterminate  reprieve 
during  good  behaviour  and  a  death  sentence  if  he  attempted 
to  escape. 

They  retraced  their  steps  along  the  way  by  which  they 
had  come,  repassed  the  Dominican  Monastery  and  re- 
crossed  the  Jesuits'  bridge. 

Bounding  the  Plaza  on  the  side  next  the  river  bank  were 
two  low  tile-roofed  buildings.  The  nearest,  just  opposite 
that  corner  of  the  Palacio  which  was  formed  by  the  old 
Jesuit  church,  the  corner  round  which  the  assassin  in 
woman 's  garb  had  fled  the  night  before,  was  an  adobe  struc 
ture  where  the  infantry  detail  for  the  day  sheltered  be 
tween  reliefs.  The  other,  an  L-shaped  stone  building  dat 
ing  from  Irala's  time,  the  guard-house  of  all  the  Intenden- 
tes  from  Mendoza  to  Larrazabal,  was  now  appropriated  to 
the  lancers  exclusively.  This  faced  the  Cabildo  and  had 
two  adobe  structures  used  as  stables  to  the  south-east  of  it, 
the  second  encroaching  on  the  Plaza  and,  as  it  were,  divid 
ing  the  flatter  portion  near  the  Palacio  and  Cabildo  from 
the  rougher  and  more  uneven  expanse  nearer  the  Cathedral 
and  Calle  Comercio. 

In  the  Infantry  Guard-House  Hawthorne  found  the  of 
ficer  of  the  day,  a  swarthy  brute  whom  Lopez  presented  as 
Don  Lerdo  Martinez.  He  bowed  low  over  the  magic  per 
mit,  and  led  the  way  to  an  extremely  dirty  cell  similar  to 
those  of  the  public  prison,  but  smaller.  It  was  untenanted, 
and  contained  no  hammocks,  only  eight  hide  cots. 

This,  Hawthorne  learned,  was  the  place  to  which  Don 
Basilio  Goyez  had  been  consigned  for  his  night  of  medita 
tion  and  fasting. 

Next,  Captain  Martinez  unlocked  a  heavily  barred  _  door 
and  led  the  way  down  a  narrow,  dark  stair,  the  air  on 
which,  if  it  could  be  called  air,  was  so  foul  an  effluvium 
that  going  down  it  was  like  descending  into  a  cess-pool.  A 
glimmer  of  light  on  the  left  at  the  foot  of  the  slimy  steps 
proved  to  come  the  length  of  a  vaulted  passage  over  forty 
feet  long,  from  a  single  window,  less  than  a  yard  square 
and  heavily  barred,  set  just  under  the  vault  at  the  end  to 
wards  the  river.  On  the  narrow  passage,  five  on  each  side, 
opened  the  doors  of  ten  cells.  One  by  one  Martinez  un 
locked  those  on  their  left.  They  were  all  alike,  about  seven 
feet  square,  built  of  solid  stone,  the  vaulted  ceiling  so  low 


i88  EL   SUPREMO 

that  Hawthorne  could  barely  stand  erect  under  the  very 
crown  of  the  flattened  vault.  There  was  no  opening  to  any 
gave  its  doorway,  through  which  must  come,  from  the  one 
window  at  the  end  of  the  passage,  whatever  light  and  air 
might  find  its  way  to  the  prisoner  within. 

Hawthorne  entered  every  one  and  was  glad  to  find  the 
first  two  empty,  save  for  a  worn  hide-cot  in  each. 

In  the  third  he  found  a  smallish  man,  with  shapely,  aris 
tocratic  hands  and  feet,  and  very  black  eyes.  His  hair  and 
beard  also  were  very  black  and,  somehow,  even  in  their 
tangled  unkemptness,  produced  the  impression,  at  first 
glance,  that  in  his  normal  conditon  he  had  been  an  ex 
tremely  dapper  and  foppish  person.  Even  in  his  filth  and 
rags,  with  grilles  on  his  ankles,  he  was  plainly  a  gentle 
man. 

Hawthorne  introduced  himself  as  he  had  in  the  public 
prison,  and  learned  that  he  was  talking  to  Don  Eodrigo 
Valta,  who  seemed  entirely  unreserved  until  asked  why  he 
was  in  prison.  Then  he  answered  curtly: 

' '  Perhaps  the  tyrant  might  tell  you :  he  has  given  me  no 
intimation ! ' ' 

In  the  next  cell  was  a  young  man,  plainly  a  full-blooded 
Guarani.  E[e  was  more  ragged  and  filthy  than  Valta,  and 
his  ankles  were  horrible  with  sores  and  ulcers  under  the 
shackles.  Yet  he  stood  up  as  politely  as  if  he  had  been  a 
well  man  and  free. 

When  Hawthorne  enquired  the  reason  of  his  confinement, 
he  replied : 

"I  have  said,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  that  my  name  is 
IFelicien  Abendano.  That  should  tell  you  why  I  am 
here." 

The  remaining  cell  on  that  side  was  vacant. 

Below  the  window  Hawthorne  paused,  hoping  for  a 
breath  of  the  outer  air.  He  hardly  caught  a  whiff  but,  as 
he  peered  out  between  the  close  bars,  saw  pass  and  repass 
the  cotton-trousered  legs  of  a  sentry. 

In  the  third  cell  of  the  opposite  range  was  a  young  man 
similar  to  Abendano,  but  plainly  less  a  gentleman  and  more 
a  peasant;  also  less  weak  and  shattered  by  confinement. 
His  gentlemanly  bearing  was  marred  by  something  of  a 
"beggar's  cringe  and  more  of  an  ill-assumed  pose  of  con 
scious  martyrdom. 


THE   PRISONS  189 

When  asked  why  he  was  in  prison,  he  replied,  like  Aben- 
dano : 

"Sefior  Don  Guillermo,  you  have  heard  that  I  am  Ber 
nardino  Zapidas.  That  tells  my  whole  story." 

The  remaining  cells  were  untenanted.  Hawthorne  en 
tered  each  and  glanced  about  it.  In  the  last  cell  Lopez 
remarked : 

( '  This  is  where  the  lady  was  found. ' ' 

"What  lady?"  Hawthorne  queried  sharply. 

' '  The  lady  in  the  hut  in  the  prison, ' '  Lopez  explained. 

"Found?"  Hawthorne  cried.     "What  do  you  mean  by 

'found'!" 

Even  in  that  dim  light,  Hawthorne  could  see  every  ves 
tige  of  healthy  colour  fly  from  the  lieutenant's  face  and 
leave  it  grey  with  terror. 

"I  supposed  ...  I  imagined  ...  I  fancied 
.  .  ."he  babbled,  "that  El  Supremo  .  .  .  that  the 
lady  ...  I  assumed  that  you  knew;  I  have  told  you 
something.  If  you  reveal  my  indiscretion  to  El  Supremo,  I 
am  a  dead  man." 

"Do  not  be  afraid,"  Hawthorne  assured  him.  "I  shall 
tell  nobody  anything." 

Martinez,  with  manifest  relief,  bade  them  an  effusive 
adieu  as  they  left  the  building. 

At  the  Cavalry  Guard-House  Hawthorne  found  a  hand 
some,  natty  captain,  by  name  Don  Fulano  Garmendia.  He 
showed  an  untenanted  cell  like  that  shown  by  Martinez, 
and  two  ranges  of  dungeons  underground.  If  anything, 
they  were  worse  than  the  first  Hawthorne  had  seen. 

Of  the  twenty  cells,  eleven  were  tenanted  by  gaunt 
scarecrows,  emaciated,  sallow,  with  sunken  eyes,  matted 
hair,  straggling  beards  and  long  nails.  Every  one  wore 
grillos  on  his  ankles.  The  least  repulsive  and  least  pitiful 
of  these  prisoners  was  the  recaptured  Chilaber.  He  lay  on 
his  cot,  plainly  tormented  by  a  raging  fever.  He  was  ob 
viously  too  ill  to  stand  up,  and  could  barely  speak. 

Besides  the  two  Chilabers,  no  prisoner  interested  Haw 
thorne  except  the  last. 

At  sight  of  him,  he  greeted  him  as  Don  Francisco. 

"How  did  you  know  me?"  the  young  man  asked,  in  a 
courteous  tone,  but  with  a  sort  of  affected  aristocratic  lan 
guor,  oddly  absurd  in  his  condition  and  situation. 


190  EL   SUPREMO 

"I  recognised  you,"  Hawthorne  said,  "after  talking  to 
your  brother  in  the  public  prison." 

"Is  he  in  prison,  too!"  Don  Francisco  exclaimed.  "He 
is  luckier  than  I :  he  has  light,  air  and  company.  I  am  like 
a  buried  corpse  for  all  the  news  I  hear. 

"So  that  old  Demon  rounded  on  him,  too!  "What  for? 
If  I  may  ask,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo." 

Hawthorne  told  him. 

"Just  like  him!"  Don  Francisco  commented. 

"He  prates  of  impartiality,  reiterates  that  he  will  treat 
all  men  alike,  will  favour  no  one,  and,  in  fact,  is  so  in 
dread  of  favouring  his  relatives  that  he  is  actually  a  savage 
to  all  his  blood  kin. 

"I  had  a  quarrel  at  a  dance,  and,  as  I  was  insulted,  nat^ 
urally  struck  the  intruder. 

*  *  Now,  the  same  thing  in  anybody  else  would  have  passed 
absolutely  unnoticed. 

"He  had  me  arrested,  rated  me  for  presuming  on  my 
relationship  to  him,  told  me  he'd  teach  me  to  lord  it  over 
Paraguay,  said  he'd  show  all  the  world  that  he  had  no  fa- 
vourites,  would  deter  any  others  from  such  folly. 

"Thereupon  he  threw  me  into  this  hole.  Two  or  three 
months  ago  they  riveted  these  grillos  on  me.  Here  I  am." 


CHAPTER   XV 

DONA   CECILIA 
(1) 

RETURNED  to  the  Mayorga  mansion,  Hawthorne  was 
glad  to  find  Don  Vicente  in  his  "library."  Over 
mate  and  cigars  he  described  his  morning  and,  in  particu 
lar,  the  lady  of  the  hut. 

"Without  question,"  Don  Vicente  declared,  "you  refer 
to  Dofia  Cecilia  Rodriguez,  the  wife  or  widow  of  that  Don 
Domingo  Rodriguez  of  whom  Don  Bernardo  Velasco  told 
you  yesterday  morning." 

"Wife  or  widow?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

Don  Vicente  put  up  one  plump,  white  hand. 


DONA   CECILIA  191 

"Don  Guillermo, "  he  protested,  "you  go  too  fast,  you 
Americanos  del  Norte.  Your  quick  minds  outrun  our  slow 
wits,  our  slower  tongues.  Only  hearken,  I  will  tell  you 
everything.  When  I  am  at  the  end  of  my  story,  you  will 
know  all.  Question  me  then,  if  necessary." 

Hawthorne,  rebuked,  composed  himself  to  listen. 

"Don  Domingo  Rodriguez,"  Mayorga  resumed,  "was  an 
important  figure  in  Asuncion  throughout  the  last  months 
of  Don  Bernardo  Velasco's  rule.  During  the  alarm  caused 
by  Belgrano's  invasion,  he  was  one  of  our  Intendente's 
most  valued  councillors,  for,  while  grasping  and  unscrupu 
lous  in  his  private  dealings,  he  possessed  great  capacities 
for  public  business.  He  was  resolute  for  defence  against 
the  Portenos,  upheld  Don  Bernardo  in  all  things,  and, 
when  the  invaders  drew  near  the  capital,  superintended  the 
audit  of  all  expenditures  for  arms,  ammunition,  saddles, 
belts,  and  other  supplies  for  the  patriot  army ;  verified  and 
checked  the  lists  of  munitions  in  the  arsenals,  oversaw  the 
dealing  out  of  muskets,  flints,  powder  and  bullets  to  the 
defenders,  and  rendered  invaluable  services. 

"When  Don  Porfirio  Somellera,  whom  you  met  at  the 
wine-shop  of  Dr.  Bargas,  fomented  ideas  of  independence 
here  in  Asuncion,  Don  Domingo  mediated  between  the  rev 
olutionists  and  the  Intendente.  It  was  his  influence  with 
Don  Jerman  Caballero  which  arranged  for  Don  Bernardo's 
resignation  and  acquiescence  in  the  formation  of  a  local 
independent  Government  and  for  his  peaceable  withdrawal 
from  the  Government  House  into  private  life.  Don  Do 
mingo  was  active  in  the  discussions  which  preceded  the  for 
mation  of  a  junta  to  take  charge  of  the  government  until 
a  convention  could  be  summoned.  Along  with  Don  Pru- 
dencio  la  Guardia,  and  Don  Cipriano  Domeque,  he  main 
tained  whatever  influence  the  merchants  and  landowners  of 
Asuncion  possessed  over  against  the  greater  power  of  the 
generals  of  the  army,  and  voiced  the  sentiments  of  those 
citizens  who  were  neither  churchmen,  lawyers  nor  soldiers. 
The  three  of  them  held  out  for  the  appointment  of  Don 
Eustaquio  Baiz  as  secretary  of  the  junta.  But  the  generals 
overruled  this  proposal  on  the  ground,  not  only  of  Don 
Eustaquio 's  inferiority  in  erudition  to  the  only  alternative 
candidate,  but  still  more  because,  being  son-in-law  of  Don 
Lazaro  Ribera  de  Espinosa,  the  previous  Intendente,  he 


192  EL   SUPREMO 

shared  to  some  extent  the  obloquy  cast  upon  his  father-in- 
law  and  to  a  greater  degree  his  unpopularity. 

"When  our  present  Dictator  was  appointed  secretary  to 
the  junta,  Don  Domingo,  who  had  opposed  him  by  every 
possible  means,  felt  himself  unsafe  in  Asuncion,  regarding 
his  cousin  as  his  enemy  ever  since  his  suit  against  Don  Es- 
tanislao  Machain,  and  still  more  so  since  his  recent  opposi 
tion  to  his  appointment. 

"His  three  children  had  all  died  within  a  few  weeks  of 
each  other,  and  his  wife  only  some  months  later,  just  before 
the  news  of  the  French  invasion  of  Spain  had  reached 
Paraguay.  Being  thus  a  childless  widower,  Don  Domingo 
turned  as  much  as  possible  of  his  large  property  into  cash, 
closed  up  his  house  here  in  Asuncion,  and  secretly  de 
parted  out  of  Paraguay,  reaching  Buenos  Aires  in  safety, 
as  we  heard  from  the  captain  of  the  vessel  in  which  he  sailed 
down  the  river  from  Corrientes. 

"At  Buenos  Aires  he  engaged  in  commerce,  prospered 
greatly,  and  married  for  the  second  time.  This  we  heard 
through  Don  Meliton  Isasi,  or  through  one  of  his  ship- 
captains.  "We  also  learned  that  his  second  wife  had  been  a 
Senorita  Cecilia  Balcarce,  daughter  of  Don  Preciado  Bal- 
carce  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  of  his  first  wife,  whom  he  had 
married  in  England  and  who  had  died  while  her  only 
daughter  was  an  infant.  We  likewise  heard  that  Senorita 
Cecilia  had  been  unhappy  with  her  step-mother,  Dona  Mel- 
chora  Balcarce,  who  had  been  Senorita  Melchora  Esealada, 
and  that  therefore  Domingo's  wooing  of  his  second  wife 
had  been  quick  and  easy,  as  he  was  wealthy  and  her  father 
eager  that  the  daughter  of  his  first  wife  should  be  mar 
ried. 

"However  that  may  have  been,  whether  the  gossip  was 
true  or  not,  we  heard  that  Don  Domingo  was  again  mar 
ried,  that  Dona  Cecilia  was  tall,  fair-haired  and  blue-eyed, 
like  an  English  woman,  or  like  Dona,  Encarnacion  Fig- 
ueredo,  the  only  rubia  in  Asuncion. 

"Later  we  heard  that  Don  Domingo  had  removed  with 
his  new  wife  to  Santa  Fe,  and  was  there  prospering  and 
growing  richer. 

"A  year  or  more  later  we  heard  that  he  had  removed 
from  Santa  Fe  to  Corrientes,  and  that,  being  in  favour  with 
Artigas  and  regarded  as  under  his  protection,  he  continued 


DONA   CECILIA  1Q3 

to  prosper  and  grow  rich  in  Corrientes,  like  the  Chilabers, 
Whom  you  saw  this  morning  in  their  dungeons. 

* '  Late  one  very  hot  night  last  March — that  is,  about  four 
months  ago,  and  about  two  months  after  the  ship  carrying 
the  Chilabers  anchored  in  the  harbour  here — it  was  ru 
moured  about  Asuncion  that  Don  Domingo  Rodriguez, 
with  his  Porteno  wife  and  a  numerous  retinue  of  servants, 
had  arrived  in  the  city  just  after  dark,  having  travelled 
from  Corrientes  by  land,  crossing  the  river  at  Itaty,  and 
making  the  journey  through  the  marsh  country  by  way  of 
Curapaiti,  Neembucu  and  Herradura. 

"We  regarded  the  rumour  as  very  improbable,  for  we 
could  not  conjecture  any  sane  motives  that  would  lead  him 
to  return  to  Asuncion.  Besides,  not  one  of  us  gentry  had 
seen  any  indications  of  the  entrance  into  Asuncion  of  such 
a  cavalcade.  True,  we  had  noticed  that  Don  Domingo's 
mansion  had  been  opened,  aired  and  cleaned.  But  the 
caretaker  had  maintained  that  his  orders  said  nothing  about 
his  master  returning  to  Asuncion;  that  he  did  not  know 
why  the  house  was  to  be  made  ready  for  occupation.  It 
was  too  late  that  night  to  go  to  Don  Domingo's  house  and 
discover  the  truth.  So  no  one  went. 

"Next  morning  we  were  startled  by  a  report  that  before 
sunrise  a  body  of  soldiers  had  surrounded  the  Rodriguez 
mansion,  arrested  him  and  cast  him  into  one  of  the  under 
ground  cells  of  the  infantry  guard-house.  The  news,  of 
course,  was  passed  about  in  whispers.  No  one  dared  to  ask 
any  questions,  or  so  much  as  to  stare  at  Don  Domingo  s 
house,  far  less  to  call  there,  even  in  secret. 

"No  one  in  Asuncion  had  ever  seen  his  Porteno  wife. 
But  when  we  saw  a  tall,  fair  woman,  much  indeed  like  Dona 
Encarnacion  Figueredo,  crossing  the  Plaza  and  entering 
the  Government  House,  we  conjectured  that  she  was  Dona 
Cecilia  going  to  intercede  for  her  husband.  _ 

"Her  intercessions  were  not  without  avail.  He  was  not 
released,  but  we  heard  that  she  had  permission  to  visit  him 
daily,  and  indeed  saw  her  pass  and  repass  through  the 
streets  each  morning,  followed  by  a  slave  girl  with  a  basket, 
as  if  of  food  or  delicacies.  , 

"No  one,  of  course,  dared  so  much  as  to  notice  her,  let 
alone  speak  to  her,  for  fear  of  drawing  down  the  Dic 
tator's  displeasure  upon  any  one  who  seemed  to  favour  a 


194  EL  SUPREMO 

wife  of  one  of  his  prisoners.  Still  less  did  any  one  dare  to 
call  at  her  house  or  offer  her  assistance  of  any  kind.  That 
would  have  been  almost  equivalent  to  suicide.  All  felt 
curiosity  and  sympathy,  but  all  dreaded  to  show  either. 
To  help  or  comfort  her  in  her  distress,  even  secretly, 
would  have  been  too  appalling  a  risk.  Therefore,  with 
her  few  servants,  for  the  retinue  had  dwindled  or 
had  been  exaggerated,  she  lived  isolated  in  her  closed 
and  barred  house,  as  much  a  stranger  to  all  of  us  as 
if  she  had  never  come  to  Asuncion.  No  one  knew  any  more 
of  its  tenants  or  of  what  went  on  in  its  patio  than  if  no 
such  house  existed. 

"Last  April,  a  day  or  two  after  Don  Alberto  Chilaber's 
escape  from  the  public  prison,  we  heard  that  Don  Domingo 
had  likewise  escaped  from  the  cuartel  where  he  had  been 
confined,  a  far  more  difficult  matter.  His  wife  had  ex 
changed  garments  with  him;  dressed  in  hers  he  had  suc 
cessfully  passed  the  guards,  as  a  tall  woman  muffled  to  the 
eyes  was  what  they  had  seen  enter  and  leave  daily  for 
weeks. 

"His  devoted  wife  was  found  in  his  cell  wearing  his 
clothing. 

"At  once  his  house  was  routed  out,  and  his  servants  ar 
rested  and  tortured.  But  all  denied  any  knowledge  of  his 
escape,  of  any  plans  for  his  escape,  or  of  knowing  any 
thing  except  that  their  mistress  had  left  the  house  at  the 
usual  hour  that  morning,  with  no  attendant,  herself  carry 
ing  the  basket  of  food,  as  she  had  sometimes  done  before. 

"The  lieutenant  of  the  guard  on  duty  when  the  escape 
occurred  was  shot,  of  course.  So  were  two  or  three  sen 
tries. 

"The  whole  city,  the  whole  country  all  about,  was 
searched  for  any  trace  of  the  fugitive.  None  has  been 
found.  He  may  have  escaped  out  of  Paraguay,  may  be 
hiding,  though  that  is  very  improbable,  or  may,  more  likely, 
be  dead  of  fatigue,  exposure  or  despair.  That  is  why  I 
spoke  of  Dona  Cecilia  as  his  wife  or  widow. 

"She  was  left  in  the  barrack  cell  for  a  few  days  only. 
She  was  then  removed  to  the  public  prison,  where  you  saw 
her. 

* '  Don  Domingo 's  entire  property  was  at  once  confiscated 
and  advertised  for  sale.  His  house  was  bought  by  Don 


DONA   CECILIA  195 

Gumesindo  Estagarribia,  a  rich  Creole  whom  the  Dictator 
has  created  Secretary  of  State. 

' '  And  now, ' '  he  concluded,  *  *  you  know  all  I  can  tell  you 
of  this  lady." 

"Has  no  human  being, "  Hawthorne  queried,  "no  lady 
of  her  class,  visited  her  in  her  imprisonment  ? ' ' 

"My  dear  young  friend,"  Mayorga  exclaimed,  "can 
nothing  make  you  understand  that  to  show  the  slightest 
concern  for  any  one  under  the  Dictator 's  displeasure,  even 
if  not  arrested,  would  draw  down  upon  whoever  exhibited 
such  a  feeling  still  more  severe  displeasure ;  that  to  mani 
fest  interest  in  the  welfare  of  one  of  his  prisoners  would 
almost  certainly  cause  any  one  rash  enough  for  such  temer 
ity  to  suffer  even  more  rigorous  punishment  ? ' ' 

"Surely,"  Hawthorne  maintained,  "the  relations  of 
prisoners  are  permitted  to  succour  them.  Dona  Cecilia  was 
allowed  to  visit  her  husband. ' ' 

"True,"  Don  Vicente  replied.  "But  Doiia  Cecilia  has 
no  relatives  in  Asuncion.  Her  husband's  kinsfolk  do  not 
know  her,  and  are  all  on  very  bad  terms  with  the  Dictator. 
Not  one  of  them  took  any  more  notice  of  Don  Domingo's 
presence  in  Asuncion  than  if  he  had  never  returned,  not 
even  his  two  brothers.  They  are  glad  enough  to  be  out  of 
the  prison  themselves,  glad  enough  to  remain  unnoticed  by 
the  Dictator.  They  are  not  so  foolish  as  to  bring  them 
selves  to  his  attention  or  recall  themselves  to^his  memory. 
They  avoid  reminding  him  of  their  existence. 

"If,"  Hawthorne  persisted,  "none  of  her  husband's  re 
lations  nor  any  pious  ladies  dare  try  to  alleviate  her  suf 
ferings  in  prison,  surely  the  nuns  would  run  no  risk  by 
ministering  to  her. ' ' 

"Nuns!"  Don  Vicente  cried.  "There  are  no  nuns  in 
Asuncion.  There  never  have  been. 

"Why  is  that?"  Hawthorne  enquired,  astonished. 
Don  Vicente  smiled. 

"The  atmosphere  of  Asuncion,"  he  said,  "is  scarcely 
favourable  to  the  establishment  of  a  nunnery  here.  Our 
clergy  have  never  been  a  cause  of  pride  to  the  residents  of 
our  capital.  I  can  scarcely  imagine  any  community  toler 
ating  nuns  comparable  to  our  friars,  or  any  nuns  worthy 
to  be  called  nuns  existing  in  the  same  city  with  such  friars 
as  we  have  here ;  or,  for  that  matter,  of  any  bishop  author- 


196  EL   SUPREMO 

izing  the  experiment.  The  climate  of  Asuncion  is  more 
congenial  for  a  crop  of  gold  combs  than  for  veils. ' ' 

Hawthorne  contracted  his  eyebrows. 

"If  none  exist  to  help  her,"  he  said,  "I  must  try  to  help 
her  myself . ' ' 

'  *  You  will  draw  down  on  you  the  wrath  of  our  Dictator, 
for  certain, ' '  Don  Vicente  warned  him. 

1 '  I  think  not, ' '  Hawthorne  spoke  drily.  ' '  I  shall  be  very 
cautious.  This  is  no  case  for  rescue,  for  haste,  for  urgency. 
I  must  watch  and  wait  and  plan. 

* '  But  let  me  ask  you  this : 

"Suppose  I  had  El  Supremo's  written  authorisation  for 
some  lady  to  go  with  me  to  the  prison,  talk  with  Dona 
Cecilia,  assist  her  with  fresh  clothing  and  whatever  else 
she  needs,  should  I  find  any  willing  ? ' ' 

"Any?"  Mayorga  cried.  "You  would  find  all  willing, 
all  eager.  Not  one  but  would  compete  for  the  privilege." 

"Thank  you,"  Hawthorne  uttered  fervently.  "As  soon 
as  I  can,  I  shall  have  such  a  permission  as  easily  as  I  won 
that  for  myself." 

(2) 

At  the  Palacio  Hawthorne  was  conducted  at  once  by  Bopi 
to  the  Dictator  in  his  library,  the  fittings  of  which  he 
found  rearranged  according  to  his  suggestions  of  the  night 
before.  Francia  was  again  wearing  his  flowered  calico 
dressing-gown,  instead  of  the  blue  general's-coat  of  his 
morning  audiences.  As  soon  as  they  were  left  alone,  after 
both  had  partaken  of  Francia 's  coarse,  cheap  snuff  and 
their  cigars  were  drawing,  the  Dictator  said: 

"One  of  the  bits  of  wisdom  imparted  to  me  by  Don 
Tomas  Parlett  is  the  advice  that  no  man  should  ever  dress 
his  own  hurts  unless  he  can  get  no  one  else  to  do  so  for 
him.  Would  you  think  it  wise  to  put  a  new  dressing  in 
place  of  the  one  you  put  on  me  last  night  ? ' ' 

"Does  it  pain  you?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

"Not  a  particle,"  Francia  declared. 

"Is  the  dressing  stuck  to  the  wound?"  Hawthorne  asked. 

"No,"  the  Dictator  said,  moving  his  shoulders  about,  "I 
think  not." 

*  *  Then  we  had  best  leave  it  as  it  is, ' '  Hawthorne  advised 


DONA   CECILIA  197 

"111  merely  soak  the  pad  with  your  Guarani  eye-lotion." 

After  they  were  again  seated,  Franeia  came  straight  to 
the  point. 

"In  the  fewest  words,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "how  do 
you  mean  to  make  your  profits  on  your  proposed  extension 
and  improvement  of  our  yerba  trade,  and  what  proportions 
of  the  profits  do  you  expect  for  yourself?" 

Hawthorne's  reply  was  prompt  and  unhesitating. 

"I  am  told,"  he  said,  "that  the  export  of  yerba  has  been 
practically  uniform  for  more  than  thirty  years,  that  there 
have  been  scarcely  any  fluctuations  since  before  Espinosa's 
time." 

1  *  That  is  true, ' '  Franeia  acknowledged. 

"Any  augmentation  of  the  traffic,"  Hawthorne  contin 
ued",  "would  therefore  be  immediately  apparent,  and  what 
proportion  of  that  enlargement  was  due  to  my  activities 
would  be  easily  ascertained.  I  had  a  vague  notion  of  pro 
posing  to  you  that  I  be  allowed  one-half  of  the  net  profits 
on  each  year's  increase  over  the  previous  year's  exporta 
tion:  no  growth,  no  profit  to  me  whatever." 

"That  certainly  sounds  modest  and  fair,"  Franeia  rumi 
nated.  "I  should  be  willing  to  think  that  over." 

"I  had  another  idea,"  Hawthorne  pursued.  I  am  told 
that  not  a  pound  of  yerba  is  exported  beyond  this  conti 
nent.  As  I  told  you,  I  have  hopes  of  creating  a  demand  for 
it  throughout  the  entire  civilised  world.  It  seems  to  me 
that,  say  half  the  net  profits  on  all  yerba  sold  outside  of 
South  America,  might  be  only  a  fair  return  to  me  for 
finding  new  markets  for  it,  and  that  this  might  reasonably 
continue  for  my  lifetime." 

"I  should  have  to  consider  that  proposal  for  some  time 
and  very  carefully,"  Franeia  said,  "before  entering  upon 
a  binding  agreement  to  that  effect.  But  there  is  nothing 
manifestly  unfair  in  the  suggestion." 

"I  had  thought,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "that  perhaps 
a  compromise  between  the  two  proposals,  or  a  combination 
of  them,  might  prove  acceptable  to  the  government  of  Par- 

"I  shall  think  the  matter  over,"  Franeia  said.  ''Mean 
while,  what  facilities  do  you  desire  towards  acquainting 
yourself  with  the  intricacies  of  the  yerba  trade?" 

Hawthorne  replied:     "Merely  freedom  to  become  ac- 


198  EL   SUPREMO 

quainted  with  Asuncion,  its  inhabitants  and  its  environs, 
to  walk  and  ride  about  as  I  please,  to  observe  the  city 
and  its  suburbs  and  surroundings.  After  I  feel  at  home 
here,  I  shall  request  permission  to  extend  my  enquiries. " 

"All  of  which  permission,"  the  Dictator  said,  "is  freely 
granted.  But  I  do  not  perceive  any  probabilities  of  imme 
diate  profit  to  yourself  in  such  excursions." 

' '  Immediate  profit, ' '  Hawthorne  replied,  "  I  do  not  look 
for.  I  am  well  enough  provided  to  support  myself  for  a 
long  time  in  the  hope  of  ultimate  large  returns  for  my 
outlay.  I  am  told  that  each  year  there  are  shipped  from 
Asuncion  about  forty  thousand  tercios  of  mate,  running 
from  nine  to  ten  arrobas  in  weight  to  each  tercio.  That 
makes  from  nine  to  ten  million  pounds  of  yerba.  As  it  is 
valued  at  the  quay  at  about  two  piastres  the  arroba,  that 
comes  to,  at  least,  seven  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dol 
lars '  worth  of  mate,  and  perhaps  a  round  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars'  worth.  Putting  the  export  at  the  lowest 
estimate,  as  the  profits  run  fully  fifty  per  cent,  the  annual 
net  profit  is  fully  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dol 
lars.  Reckoning  the  present  export  at  its  highest,  if  I  can 
increase  the  traffic  by  only  so  much  as  ten  per  cent  yearly, 
the  first  year  would  show  fifty  thousand  piastres  net  incre 
ment  in  profits.  Half  of  that  would  be  a  small  fortune  to 
me;  and  I  hope  for  not  ten  per  cent  increases,  but  dou 
blings  or  treblings  of  the  traffic.  Tea  and  coffee  are  con 
sumed  in  Europe  by  millions  of  pounds ;  wherever  they  are 
used  there  should  be  a  quick  market  for  yerba  as  soon  as  it 
is  introduced." 

"Ah!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "You  streak  the  sky  with 
sunrise  clouds  of  golden  dreams,  yet  I  would  wager  that  all 
the  time  you  are  talking  yerba  to  me  you  are  really  bursting 
to  lecture  me  on  how  I  should  manage  my  prisons. ' ' 

"I  assure  you,  Excelentisimo  Senor,"  Hawthorne  ex 
claimed,  "that  I  had  no  such  intention." 

"Why  not?"  Francia  demanded.  "I  certainly  ex 
pected  it  as  a  sequel  to  some  of  your  utterances  ot 
last  night." 

"Last  night,"  Hawthorne  rejoined,  "I  suggested  most 
innocently  that  in  circumstances  dependent  upon  a  whole 
complex  of  contingencies  and  eventualities,  you  might  allow 
me  to  inspect  your  prisons.  Your  quick  and  unexpected 


DONA   CECILIA  199 

suspicions,  as  if  I  had  made  a  proposal  to  view  your  prisons 
at  once,  roused  in  me  a  combative  spirit  of  contradiction 
and  stubborn  opposition. 

' '  To-day  I  have,  so  Don  Benigno  told  me  when  we  parted, 
inspected  every  part  of  each  of  your  prisons.  I  realise  how 
outrageously  presumptuous  it  would  be  for  me  to  make 
any  suggestions.  I  know  nothing  of  the  past  conditions 
which  made  the  prisons  what  they  are  or  of  the  present 
conditions  which  keep  them  such,  nor  of  the  reasons  which 
consigned  to  them  each  of  the  prisoners  I  saw._  "Were  I  to 
offer  suggestions,  I  should  hold  you  quite  justified  in  hav 
ing  me  shot  as  a  fool  and  a  meddler." 

Francia's  brows  knit  suddenly.  He  threw  his  cigar  on 
the  floor  and  lit  a  fresh  one  at  the  candle  which  projected 
from  the  jumble  of  papers  on  the  table. 

"You  are  altogether  too  plausible,  Don  Guillermo,  he 
eaid.  "I  half  believe  I  ought  to  have  you  shot  on  general 
principles.  But  then  I  never  have  had  anybody  shot  on 
general  principles  and  do  not  intend  to  begin  with  you,  nor 
to  begin  ever  with  anybody,  for  that  matter.  I  should  cer 
tainly  rebuke  any  Paraguayan  who  offered  a  suggestion 
about  anything,  should  very  likely  imprison  him ;  might,  if 
goaded  to  it,  order  him  shot.  For  all  Paraguayans  are  fools 
and  their  suggestions  ridiculous.  And,  apart  from  that,  I 
must  impress  on  all  of  them,  and  the  old  Spaniards  in  par 
ticular,  that  a  Dictator's  business  is  to  dictate,  not  to  be 
dictated  to. 

"You  are  different.  You  have  sense.  Your  ideas  are 
practical.  You  are  no  native  here,  no  subject  of  mine. 
Your  suggestions  are  welcome. 

"As  to  shooting  you,  I  did  not  think  of  it  last  night. 
But  to-day  and  any  future  days,  I  do  not  forget  and  shall 
not  forget  that  but  for  your  quickness  and  strength  of 
wrist  I  should  not  be  able  to  give  any  orders  about  any^ 
thing.  I  am  no  more  likely  to  have  you  shot  for  presump 
tion  than  for  familiarity.  Have  you  noticed  that  from 
the  time  we  sat  down  to  supper  last  night  until  just  now 
you  never  once  said  ' Excelentisimo  Senor'  to  me? 
not  until  you  said  it  to  me  just  now.  Familiarity  from  you 
comes  naturally.  We  are  friends  already,  Don  Guillermo. 
I  invite  your  comments  upon  my  prisons,  your  criticisms, 
your  suggestions." 


200  EL   SUPREMO 

Hawthorne  gulped  a  dry,  empty  swallow,  and  spoke 
slowly,  his  eyes  keen  on  Francia's. 

* '  You  do  not  seem  to  be  laying  a  trap  for  me, ' '  he  said. 

"I  am  not,"  Francia  reassured  him. 

" Relying  on  that  assurance,"  Hawthorne  resumed,  "I 
venture  one  suggestion :  That  you  release  one  of  your  pris 
oners.  ' ' 

"I  can  guess  which,"  Francia  smiled.  "You  mean  the 
lady  confined  among  the  women  in  the  general  prison. ' ' 

"The  same,"  Hawthorne  affirmed,  his  lips  drier. 

'  *  That  is  like  a  young  man, ' '  Francia  declared,  still  smil 
ing,  "to  intercede  for  my  comeliest  prisoner.  Nor  do  I 
wonder.  I  make  the  same  suggestion  to  myself  every  day. 
There  is  not  one  of  my  prisoners  whom  I  should  be  more 
willing  to  release.  But  I  cannot  entertain  your  suggestion, 
even  if  it  had  any  other  basis  besides  a  young  man's  soft- 
heartedness  for  any  pretty  face.  The  lady  in  question  is 
the  core  of  the  most  baffling  puzzle  I  have  had  to  deal  with 
since  I  attained  authority;  of  the  one  insoluble  riddle  of 
my  present  perplexities.  Also,  she  is  the  only  clue,  if  clue 
there  be,  to  one  or  perhaps  even  to  more  than  one,  of  my 
most  dangerous  enemies.  Until  I  have  them  in  my  power 
or  am  sure  that  they  have  ceased  to  exist,  I  must,  however 
unwillingly,  retain  her  in  duress. ' ' 

' '  But  surely, ' '  Hawthorne  burst  out,  * '  she  has  done  noth 
ing  to  deserve  imprisonment ! ' ' 

Instantly  Francia's  manner  changed.  His  mild  demean 
our  vanished,  his  face  hardened.  He  was  all  the  imperious 
despot,  infuriated  at  a  trace  of  opposition. 

"What  she  deserves  is  too  small  a  factor  to  be  consid 
ered,"  he  snarled.  "The  question  is  of  my  duty  to  the 
safety  of  Paraguay  embodied  in  myself ! ' ' 

Hawthorne  sat  silent,  sweating  in  the  hot  afternoon 
air. 

After  glaring  at  him  for  a  long  minute,  Francia  softened 
again. 

' '  Let  us  change  the  subject, ' '  he  said.  ' '  Let  us  make  no 
further  reference  to  that  individual.  Let  us  pass  to  other 
suggestions  which  occur  to  you." 

"With  your  permission,"  Hawthorne  replied  stiffly,  "I 
must  ask  the  privilege  of  a  postponement  of  my  suggestions 
until  I  learn  more  of  Asuncion  and  of  Paraguay. ' ' 


DONA   CECILIA  201 

"Very  judicious!"  Francia  admitted.  "But  you  do  not 
need  any  postponements  to  ask  questions." 

"To  ask  questions,"  Hawthorne  said,  "would  not  be  ju 
dicious  after  any  amount  of  postponement.'' 

' '  Yet  I  am  sure, ' '  Francia  came  back  at  him,  * '  that  you 
are  very  curious  about  several  of  the  prisoners  besides  the 
lady." 

"However  curious  I  might  be,"  Hawthorne  disclaimed, 
"I  feel  that  to  express  that  curiosity  would  be  an  unpar 
donable  impertinence." 

"From  any  one  but  yourself,  certainly,"  the  Dictator 
agreed ;  ' '  perhaps  even  from  you.  I  shall  save  you  the  risk. 
To  Paraguayans  I  never  explain  myself,  far  less  stoop  to 
justify  myself.  To  you  I  am  about  to  do  both.  Put  it  down 
to  whim  or  caprice,  if  you  choose. 

"Pai  Dalmacio  no  doubt  put  on  an  air  of  injured  inno 
cence,  pulled  a  long  face,  hit  the  most  moving  key  of  his 
best  whine,  and  let  you  suppose  him  a  helpless  victim,  con 
fined  in  fetters  because  he  had  preached  loyalty  to  his  king 
and  resistance  to  traitors  before  and  on  the  famous  29th 
of  September.  He  always  poses  as  a  martyr^to  his  preach 
ing  towards  the  abortive  counter-revolution." 

"He  whined,"  Hawthorne  interrupted  absent-mindedly, 
"but  he  gave  no  reasons  why  he  was  in  prison." 

"You  had  been  given  to  understand  by  others,"  Francia 
insisted,  "that  he  suffered  for  his  part  in  that  futile  at 
tempt." 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  truthfully  admitted. 

"Well,"  Francia  resumed,  "he  is  in  prison  for  no  such 


reason. ' : 


Then  his  expression  suddenly  hardened.  ^ 

' '  Did  you  meet  Don  Nicolas  Herrera  in  Buenos  Aires  7 
he  demanded. 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  replied;  "a  most  agreeable  gentle 
man,  of  whom  I  saw  more  than  a  little. 

"Humph!"  ejaculated  Francia.  "That  most  agreeable 
gentleman  was  despatched  about  three  years  ago  to  Asun 
cion,  ostensibly  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  alliance  between 
Buenos  Aires  and  the  Republic  of  Paraguay.  Everybody 
here  understood  perfectly  that  his  real  mission  was  to  bring 
about,  by  cajolery,  bribery,  threats  or  any  other  means  in 
his  power,  the  reduction  of  Paraguay  from  an  independent 


202  EL   SUPREMO 

republic  to  the  status  of  a  mere  appanage  of  Buenos  Aires, 
of  a  province  like  Entre  Rios  or  Mendoza. 

"The  report  of  his  approach  caused  more  trepidation 
than  had  the  news  of  Belgrano's  invasion  three  years  be 
fore.  His  wiles  were  more  shuddered  at  than  Belgrano's 
guns  and  sabres.  Everybody  feared  he  would  succeed. 
The  old  Spaniards  foresaw  that  union  with  Buenos  Aires 
would  make  forever  impossible  reunion  with  Spain;  mer 
chants  and  traders  foreboded  the  extinction  of  their  oppor 
tunities  for  profit  under  Porteno  domination  or  competi 
tion;  the  patriot  revolutionists  beheld  the  gallows  or  the 
banquillo  before  them ;  the  populace  imagined  the  restora 
tion  of  the  old  Spaniards  to  power  under  the  shadow  of 
Porteno  protection ;  all  classes  dreaded  such  devastation  in 
Paraguay  as  Artigas  was  causing  in  Entre  Rios.  Each 
class  distrusted  all  the  others;  and,  to  all  the  others,  each 
seemed  the  probable  agent  in  the  country 's  ruin.  But  great 
as  was  their  mutual  suspicion  and  distrust,  all  were  unani 
mous  in  despising  the  governing  junta  and  in  regarding  its 
members  as  hopelessly  incompetent  to  deal  with  the  situa 
tion.  The  junta  felt  the  contempt  of  all  classes,  and  were 
themselves  diffident  and  bickering.  Don  Fernando  de  la 
Mora,  whom  you  have  met,  resigned  of  his  own  accord  and 
I  took  his  place.  That  pompous  old  fool  Cerda  at  pnce 
abandoned  his  duties  in  a  huff.  The  rest,  being  in  a  help 
less  panic,  did  anything  I  suggested.  I  called  a  convention 
of  the  leaders  of  the  populace  from  all  parts  of  Paraguay. 
When  Don  Nicolas  arrived  he  was  lodged  in  the  old  Cus 
tom-house,  treated  with  every  civility  and  provided  with 
every  convenience  for  his  comfort,  but  rigorously  seques 
tered  under  the  surveillance  of  Estagarribia,  with  Martinez 
superintending  the  pickets.  I  permitted  no  dabbler  in  poli 
tics  to  approach  him.  But,  of  course,  the  clergy  all  visited 
him.  Pai  Dalmacio  was  with  him  again  and  again.  I  thought 
nothing  of  their  interviews  one  way  or  the  other. 

"I  told  Don  Nicolas  that  any  negotiations  between  As- 
cuncion  and  Buenos  Aires  must  begin  with  the  affirmation 
of  our  mutual  equality  and  mutual  rights  to  the  navigation, 
of  the  Parana  and  Paraguay  as  free,  international  rivers. 
To  this  he  would  not  consent,  and,  indeed,  could  not,  for 
the  Portenos  hold  out  obstinately  for  complete  control  of 
all  river  traffic. 


DONA   CECILIA  203 

"The  negotiations  hung  and,  when  the  convention  unan 
imously  approved  my  course  and  affirmed  my  conten 
tions,  Don  Nicolas  returned  home  in  a  rage. 

"I  had  heard  that,  before  he  left  Buenos  Aires,  he  had 
instructions  to  procure  my  assassination.  I  had  and  have 
good  friends  in  Buenos  Aires  itself,  in  Santa  Fe,  in  Cor- 
rientes.  They  conveyed  to  me  the  information  that  Alvear 
himself  had  advised  my  extinction,  had  said  that  with  me 
out  of  the  way,  he  could  fool  or  cajole,  or  bribe,  all  other 
Paraguayans.  I  have  my  doubts  about  that ;  Gumesindo  is 
too  fanatical  a  patriot  to  be  bribed  or  cajoled  or  fooled;  so 
is  Fulgencio,  brute  beast  as  he  is.  And  there  are  others. 
But  let  that  pass.  My  agents  wrote  that  Artigas  refused 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  plan,  saying  he  fought  his 
enemies  openly ;  that  Candioti  approved  and  gave  not  only 
advice,  but  money.  They  warned  me  to  be  very  much  on 
my  guard,  as  Don  Nicolas  was  commissioned  to  procure  my 
death  by  any  possible  means.  I  thought  I  had  taken  every 
necessary  precaution  and  chuckled  when  Don  Nicolas  was 
gone  and  I  still  alive. 

' '  But,  one  morning,  a  day  or  two  later,  Pai  Taboada 
came  into  the  outer  patio.  We  were  not  friends,  but  al 
ways  mutually  courteous.  I  should  have  offered  him  my 
snuff-box,  as  usual,  but  some  difference  in  his  expression 
caught  my  notice.  I  called  to  Zorilla: 

"  'Search  him!' 

1 1  He  had  a  long  dagger  under  his  friar 's  habit. 

"That  is  why  Pai  Dalmacio  is  in  the  prison  with  grilles 
on  his  ankles. 

"There  followed  at  intervals  of  about  three  months  a 
series  of  attempts  on  my  life  which  tried  my  nerves  more 
than  a  little.  Only  the  last  of  them  interests  you  now. 
I  was  credibly  informed  that  my  former  employer,  my 
precious  cousin  Domingo  Rodriguez,  had  openly  bragged 
in  Buenos  Aires  that  he  could  easily  kill  me,  had  repeated 
the  boast  at  Santa  Fe  and  at  Corrientes,  had  made  agree 
ments  with  Alvear,  Candioti  and  Perrichon. 

"He  returned  to  Asuncion  with  his  Porteiio  wife  and  a 
considerable  body  of  servants  and  attendants. 

"I  had  been  much  shaken  in  spirit  by  my  several  narrow 
escapes  and  was  in  no  mind  to  wait  until  he  entered  my 
presence,  probably  with  a  concealed  poniard,  in  addition 


204  EL   SUPREMO 

to  his  sufficiently  formidable  sabre.  I  had  him  arrested 
at  dawn  and  clapped  into  the  dungeon  you  inspected  to 
day. 

"Within  an  hour  a  lady,  a  charming  nibia,  came  to  beg 
for  his  release. 

"I  heard  her  prayers,  but  refused  them. 

"Then  she  begged  to  visit  him  daily. 

"This  I  granted.  You  have  undoubtedly  heard  of  the 
result. 

"Now,  the  point  is,  that  Domingo  is  at  large  in  Para 
guay.  Also  his  retainers,  to  the  number  of  three  or  more, 
got  away  from  his  house  before  it  was  searched  after  his 
escape. 

"I  have  to  reckon  with  their  persistent  hostility.  I  can 
hope  to  reach  them  only  through  the  lady  in  whom  you 
are  so  much  interested.  I  cannot,  I  dare  not  release  her. 
Do  you  comprehend  ? ' ' 

"Perfectly,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

Francia  stood  up. 

"I  have  kept  you  long  in  this  heat/'  he  said.  "It  is 
unusually  hot  for  this  time  of  the  year.  I  am  about  to  go 
for  my  afternoon  ride.  I  shall  not  invite  you  to  join  me 
to-day.  Some  day  next  week  I  shall  ask  you  for  your 
company  and  for  your  opinion  of  my  barracks  and  my  sol 
diers.  Meanwhile  I  shall  expect  to  see  you  to-morrow  night 
at  Madrina  Juana's  fiesta." 

Hawthorne  bowed  himself  out. 


(3) 

At  Mayorga's,  after  supper,  as  they  sat  in  the  patio, 
Hawthorne  told  Don  Vicente  of  his  failure  to  accomplish 
anything  for  Dona  Cecilia.  His  host  was  too  polite  to  say 
"I  told  you  so,"  but  his  manner  conveyed  his  feelings. 
Hawthorne  rebutted  the  unexpressed  idea,  maintained  his 
hopefulness,  and  was  confident  of  obtaining  permission  to 
succour  her.  He  dwelt  on  the  necessity  of  biding  his  time 
and  catching  the  Dictator  in  the  right  mood. 

"If  you  can,"  Don  Vicente  sighed,  "you  surpass  us. 
Not  one  of  us  can  ever  catch  him  in  any  mood  but  the 
wrong  mood. ' ' 


ST.    JOHN'S   DAY  205 

In  his  bedroom  and  bed  Hawthorne  did  not  immediately 
fall  asleep.  Adventurer  as  he  was,  widely  travelled  as  he 
had  been  already,  many  climates  and  races  of  men  as  he 
had  become  acquainted  with,  he  had  never  lost  the  at 
mosphere  of  his  New  England  training.  Much  as  he  had 
seen  of  life  and  human  nature,  tolerant  as  he  was  of  all 
sorts  of  customs,  of  any  sort  of  human  weakness  in  others, 
he  retained  for  himself  stern  and  austere  ideals.  He  was 
boyishly  shocked  to  find  himself  in  love,  unquestioningly  in 
love,  and  naively  horrified  that  he  was  in  love  with  another 
man's  wife.  The  alternative  of  Cecilia's  widowhood  he 
dismissed  as  improbable.  The  friends  who  would  risk  their 
lives  and  families  to  conceal  Don  Domingo  would  find 
means  to  clear  their  skirts  quickly  by  having  his  death 
made  public  certainty  promptly,  were  he  dead. 

Hawthorne  was  no  self  deceiver.  He  faced  the  facts 
squarely.  He  was  in  love  with  Cecilia,  as  he  already  called 
her  in  his  thoughts ;  his  chief  present  motive  in  life  was  to 
promote  her  welfare,  his  ultimate  aim  to  win  her,  if  she 
was  to  be  won.  But  all  the  same  he  was  shocked  at  the 
idea  of  finding  himself  in  love  with  a  married  woman. 


H 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ST.  JOHN'S  DAY 

AVING  gone  early  to  bed,  the  whole  Mayorga  house- 
JL  ju  hold  was  up  early.     The  breakfast,  to  which  Haw 
thorne    was   already   entirely   accustomed   and   which   he 
found  suited  him  in  that  climate  and  location,  was  an 
informal,  haphazard,   go-as-you-please  affair,   where  each 
individual  came  in  and  went  out  as  pleased  him  or  her,  and 
partook  of  what  happened  to  suit  of  the  abundant  supplies 
of  mate,  chocolate,  milk,  chipd,  fruit  and  cigars.     There 
was  even  a  superabundance  of  all  these  and  never  any 
thing  else.  ,    , 
As  they  met  at   breakfast  Don  Vicente    remarked 
Hawthorne   that  his   younger   son   would   escort  him  to 
Itapua.    Hawthorne  divined  that  Don  Desiderio  had  para 
mount  interests  elsewhere,  and  conjectured  that  they  were 
towards  Angelica  Recalde.     He  asked  no  questions,  and, 


206  EL   SUPREMO 

indeed,  would  never  have  thought  of  the  matter  had  not 
his  host  deemed  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  explain  away  a 
possible  slight  in  sending  Carmelo  with  his  guest  instead 
of  Desiderio. 

After  breakfast  the  ladies  and  their  maids  fussed  over 
their  finery  and  children;  the  men  superintended  their 
valets,  who  brushed  their  clothes  or  furbished  their  buttons, 
swords,  scabbards  or  saddle-gear.  Hawthorne  prepared 
himself  for  what  it  seemed  to  him  would  likely  prove  a 
sort  of  ordeal.  For  being  used  to  ride  with  boots  on  he 
was  nervous  at  the  prospect  of  having  to  affix  spurs  to  his 
lightest  dancing  pumps  and  ride  six  miles  or  more  in  silk 
stockings  and  the  best  of  his  new  knee-breeches. 

In  accordance  with  Dona  Juana  Isquibel's  admonition 
he  was  on  horseback  before  the  sun  was  hot.  Leaving  the 
Mayorga  house  all  in  a  ferment,  the  ladies  between  fuming 
and  merriment,  scolding  and  laughter,  the  men  less  voluble, 
but  equally  intent,  he  rode  off  with  young  Don  Carmelo. 
Both  were  magnificently  horsed  on  blood-bay  geldings  and 
each  was  followed  by  a  black  man-servant  on  a  cream- 
coloured  mule. 

Before  they  mounted  Carmelo  enquired : 

"Would  you  like  to  swing  round  by  the  Payagua  Indians' 
tolderia  and  have  a  look  at  them?" 

"Is  it  on  our  way?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

"No,"  said  Carmelo;  "quite  in  the  opposite  direction 
from  Itapua.  It  is  only  about  half  a  league  to  their  toldos." 

"I  think  I'll  put  that  off  till  some  other  time,"  Haw 
thorne  replied. 

"This  is  their  festival  day,"  Carmelo  explained.  "St. 
John  is  their  saint,  though  they  are  three-quarters  heathens 
yet." 

"What  is  the  special  attraction  of  their  celebration?" 
Hawthorne  asked. 

"They'll  outdo  themselves  this  year,"  Carmelo  replied, 
"as  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  is  officially  prophesied  for  to 
night,  and  an  eclipse  means  a  good  deal  in  Payagua 
heathendom." 

*  *  I  mean, ' '  Hawthorne  amplified, ' '  what  do  they  do  when 
they  celebrate?" 

"Oh,"  said  Carmelo.  "They  squat  around  in  a  ring  on 
the  grass  in  the  shade  of  some  big  trees.  The  women  sguat 


ST.    JOHN'S    DAY  207 

behind  them  or  wait  on  them.  They  have  some  big  jars  of 
brandy  or  aguardiente  and  the  women  fill  a  cocoanut  cup 
for  each  man ;  the  chief  makes  a  speech,  bows  all  round,  and 
drinks  first.  Then  the  next  most  important  man  makes  a 
speech  and  bows  and  drinks.  So  on  all  round  the  circle. 
Every  year  they  apply  for  official  leave  to  hold  their  fes 
tival.  El  Supremo  grants  the  permission  just  as  the  In- 
tendentes  used  to  do.  Like  them  he  cautions  the  committee 
that  they  must  not  drink  too  much  or  fight.  But  they 
always  do.  By  the  end  of  the  third  round  some  of  them 
are  drunk,  most  of  them  during  the  fourth,  all  before  the 
end  of  the  fifth. 

"Then  they  yell  and  fight;  fight  with  their  hands,  like 
Englishmen;  knock  each  other  down,  bloody  each  other's 
noses,  knock  out  each  other's  teeth. 

"When  half  of  them  are  lying  flat  the  women  rush  in 
and  try  to  separate  them.  Half  of  them  get  mauled  ter- 

"By  and  by  they  sober  up.  A  Payagua  Indian  so  dead 
drunk  you  can't  wake  him  with  a  blazing  splinter  held  to 
his  toe,  will  sober  up  out  of  doors  if  left  alone  two  hours. 
When  they  all  sober  up  enough  to  walk  they  link  arms, 
just  like  English  folk,  and  walk  in  procession,  a  very 
uneven,  reeling,  irregular  procession,  into  the  city,  around 
each  of  the  Monasteries,  around  each  of  the  Churches, 
around  the  Cathedral,  Plaza,  Cabildo  and  Palacio,  and  so 
back  to  their  tolderia.  It's  laughable  to  see  them  fight; 
more  laughable  to  see  them  walk  arm  in  arm.  No  other 
Indians  in  Paraguay  fight  with  their  fists  or  walk  arm  ui 
arm ;  that's  why  we  call  the  Payaguas  'los  Indies  Ingleses  ; 
they  are,  as  it  were,  English  Indians. " 

"It   seems   to  me,"   Hawthorne    commented, 
would  take  all  day  to  see  enough  of  tjieir  festival  to  make 
looking  on  worth  one's  while.    And  I  doubt  if  it  would  be 
worth  while  if  we  had  all  day  for  that  only. 
Itapua  at  once."  «. 

"Vamonos? "  was  Carmelo's  only  reply,  and  tney  set  oit. 

Hawthorne  was  delighted  with  the  lanes  through  which 
they  rode  as  soon  as  they  were  clear  of  the  streets. 
formly  they  were  deep,  trough-like  depressions,  with  grassy 
banks,  eight,  ten  or  even  twelve  feet  high  on  either  side, 
shaded   all  along  by  varied  and   beautiful  trees,   whose 


208  EL   SUPREMO 

branches  almost  met  overhead  and  shut  out  the  heat  of  the 
sun,  though  admitting  shafts  of  golden  sunshine,  cheer 
ful  and  brilliant,  while  their  trunks  stood  far  enough  apart 
to  let  in  the  breeze. 

"Are  these  roads  worn  down  this  way  by  long  traffic?" 
Hawthorne  asked  Don  Carmelo. 

"Could  any  traffic  wear  down  roads  as  deep  as  these?" 
the  Spaniard  queried  in  his  turn. 

"Surely,"  said  Hawthorne.  "I  have  seen  roads  in  the 
sandy  parts  of  Virginia  worn  even  deeper  than  these  by 
mere  washing  of  rains  from  what  were  at  first  just  tracks 
across  the  rolling  country." 

1 1  These  are  not  such, ' '  Carmelo  replied, f '  though  we  have 
sand  enough  and  rain  enough,  one  would  think.  In  the 
old  days,  even  from  Irala's  time,  these  cuttings  were  be 
gun. 

"A  complete  system  of  them,  one  for  each  approach  to 
Asuncion,  was  completed  by  Don  Hernando  Arias  de  Saa- 
vedra,  the  Intendente  who  attempted  the  extermination  of 
the  warlike  Guaranies.  They  were  extended  and  deepened 
and  new  ones  made  for  fully  a  hundred  years  after  his 
death,  as  long  as  there  were  any  hostile  raiding  natives  left 
in  Paraguay ;  for  a  mere  handful  of  men  with  arquebuses 
could  hold  an  artificial  defile  like  this  against  any  number 
of  savages  with  bows  and  arrows,  and,  in  those  days,  the 
country  between  was  all  dense  forest,  thorny  and  impene 
trable." 

"What  a  change  since  then!"  Hawthorne  exclaimed, 
looking  out  between  the  tree-trunks  as  they  mounted  the 
crest  of  a  hill  where  the  cut  was  shallowest. 

The  prospect  was  over  a  country  not  only  well-watered, 
fertile  and  productive,  but  excellently  cultivated  and 
thickly  inhabited.  Palm  trees  appeared  everywhere  thrust 
ing  up  from  among  the  thickets  and  coppices  of  the  stream- 
sides  and  valleys,  towering  over  the  prickly-pear  hedges 
between  the  fields,  dominating  the  lesser  trees  of  the 
stretches  of  dense  timber,  topping  off  and  tasselling  the 
forested  ridges. 

There  was  plenty  of  woodland  in  sight,  but  more  farm 
land.  Sugar-cane  broken  by  low  rice-fields  in  between 
extended  in  close  brakes  over  the  flat  meadow-lands  by  the 
innumerable  streams;  countless  fields  of  Indian-corn,  plots 


ST.    JOHN'S    DAY  209 

of  manioc,  small  fields  or  large  patches  of  cotton  and 
tobacco,  coffee  plantations,  fig-orchards,  banana  and  orange 
groves ;  gardens,  showing  between  their  cactus  hedges'  musk- 
melons,  watermelons,  peppers,  onions,  garlic  and  cabbages. 
Every  cottage,  and  they  were  not  far  apart,  had  a  flower- 
garden  as  well  as  a  vegetable  garden,  and  each  had  its 
row  of  bee-hives. 

The  lanes  were  alive  with  market-women  flocking  into 
Asuncion.  A  few  were  in  clumsy  two-wheeled  carts,  some 
drawn  by  horses,  others  by  mules,  one  or  two  even  by 
little  donkeys,  but  most  by  oxen.  These  carts  without 
exception  advanced  spasmodically,  sticking  fast  in  the 
rutted  sand,  while  the  oxen  panted,  or  the  mules,  horses 
or  donkeys  palpitated  and  puffed.  When  the  occupant 
thought  her  team  sufficiently  rested  she  burst  into  shrill 
exclamations  of  encouragement,  and  plied  her  whip  or  goad. 
Thus  urged  the  animals  would  tug  the  cart  into  motion 
and  plunge  or  plod  forward  for  fifty  yards  or  so,  pausing 
to  repeat  the  operation. 

More  numerous,  and,  while  less  self-important,  appar 
ently  more  comfortable,  were  the  women  who  rode  astride 
of  donkeys,  mules  or  horses  carrying  each  a  pannier  before 
its  mistress,  or  who  trudged  beside  the  many  donkeys,  fewer 
mules  and  occasional  horses  whose  twin  panniers,  heavily 
loaded  with  produce,  forbade  the  owner  to  ride. 

Most  of  the  women  were  without  pack-animals,  and  paced 
springily  along  carrying  each  on  her  head  a  jar  of  honey 
or  rum,  a  sack  of  salt,  a  bale  of  tobacco,  a  pack  of  manioc 
or  whatever  merchandise  she  bore,  done  up  in  a  parcel  or 
bundle. 

Their  necks  were  always  erect,  their  burdens  easily  borne, 
poised  airily  on  their  graceful  heads,  whose  shining  black 
braided  hair  set  off  in  every  case  a  pretty,  good-natured 
countenance  with  bright  brown  eyes,  rosy  cheeks,  small 
mouth  and  narrow,  rounded  chin. 

All  wore  spotlessly  clean  tupois  of  white  cotton,  con 
fined  only  by  an  embroidered  belt,  parti-coloured  and 
bright,  fringed  with  lace  at  the  low  neck  and  at  the  hem 
of  the  skirt  over  the  trim,  bare  ankles  and  arched,  small 
feet. 

Hawthorne  wondered  how  they  kept  their  feet  so  dustless, 
polished  and  clean. 


210  EL   SUPREMO 

Even  more  lie  wondered  at  the  behaviour  of  his  horse 
and  Don  Carmelo 's. 

The  mettlesome  beasts  were  perfectly  docile,  never  an 
instant  unmanageable.  Not  once  flid  they  attempt  to  bolt, 
not  once  did  they  shy.  Yet  as  they  passed  each  wayfarer 
they  minced,  danced  and  gave  little  prancing  leaps,  dainty 
and  pettish. 

Don  Carmelo  explained  that  all  gentlemen's  mounts  in 
Paraguay  were  carefully  tamed  to  caracole  when  meeting 
any  one ;  it  had  been  the  pride  of  the  early  settlers  to  ride 
beasts  that  showed  their  mettle,  and  the  tradition  had 
become  consecrated  by  usage.  No  grandee  would  own  a 
mount  that  did  not  display  his  training  and  prance  a  little 
for  a  foot-passer,  a  little  more  for  a  rider,  and  quite  a  deal 
for  a  cart  or  wagon. 

Itapua  proved  to  be  a  hill-suburb,  commanding  a  splen 
did  view  over  the  rolling  country,  the  roundish,  hog-backed 
hills  and  the  rivulet-ribboned  hollows  between  them. 
Westward  one  could  spy  two  long  curves  of  the  great  river 
and  descry  the  purplish  and  misty  bluish  expanse  of  the 
Gran  Chaco  meeting  the  far  horizon. 

The  Pythoness'  estate  was  extensive,  including  many 
tenanted  farms  whose  boundaries  and  names  Don  Carmelo 
indicated  as  they  rode  along  its  outskirts.  Her  home  had 
magnificent  orchards  about  it,  a  generous  stretch  of  smiling 
gardens,  an  ample  horse-paddock,  and  an  exquisitely  kept 
lawn,  before  the  grove  of  orange-trees  shading  the  mansion 
itself,  the  first  glimpse  of  which  gave  Hawthorne  a  vivid 
impression  of  intervals  of  intense  blue  sky  between  the 
many  trees,  pigeons  wheeling  in  flocks  or  cooing  on  long 
ridge-poles,  red  expanses  of  tiled  roofs,  and  white-washed 
adobe-walls. 

It  was  all  of  one  high-ceilinged  story  about  a  spacious 
patio,  and  had  along  its  front  a  deep-verandahed  portico, 
its  roof  supported  by  six  pillars,  rudely  but  tastefully 
carved,  its  floor  of  brick,  level  with  the  ground. 

As  Hawthorne  and  Carmelo  reined  up  in  front  of  the 
yerandah,  out  from  under  it  came  the  amazingly  youthful 
octogenarian,  tripping  like  a  girl,  yet  with  an  odd  mixture 
of  almost  sedate  dignity  beneath  her  surface  vivacity,  a 
proud,  matronly  poise  under  her  frothy  ebullition  of  high 
spirits. 


ST.    JOHN'S    DAY  211 

"Viva!  viva!  viva!"  she  cried  three  times.  "Bien  ve- 
nido!  Welcome,  Guillermo.  It  is  so  good  of  you  to  come 
to  see  our  preparations,  to  help  with  the  rest  of  them.  I 
am  so  glad  to  see  you. ' ' 

As  the  grooms  led  off  the  horses  she  gave  him  both  her 
hands,  squeezing  his  big  blunt  fingers  between  hers,  drew 
him  towards  her,  and  kissed  him  in  a  truly  motherly 
fashion. 

Beltran,  behind  her,  greeted  him  with  easy  intimacy  and 
the  two  exchanged  some  more  mutual  felicitations  on  soft 
beds,  sound  sleep  and  appetising  food,  and  more  reminis 
cent  objurgations  against  jerked  beef  and  mosquitoes. 

Dona  Juana  wore  such  a  costume  as  Hawthorne  had  not 
beheld  in  Paraguay  and  never  saw  there  afterwards.  As 
when  he  had  first  seen  her,  as  were  all  the  native  ladies 
he  met  that  day  or  later,  in  that  land  of  Arcadian  simplic 
ity,  she  was  without  stays.  Even  more  than  at  his  first 
sight  of  her  Hawthorne  marvelled  at  the  youthful  and 
healthy  outlines  of  the  aged  lady 's  figure,  displayed  by  her 
low-necked,  gold-belted  gown  of  crimson  silk,  all  scrolled 
with  embroideries  of  a  silk  of  the  same  hue,  conventional 
ised  vines  whose  tendrils  wound  in  curves  and  whose  flow 
ers  were  gold  thread  like  the  loose  girdle. 

Under  its  lower  edge  her  pointed  black  slippers  seemed 
not  six  inches  long. 

Above  its  gathering-ribbon  her  neck  showed  not  a  wrin 
kle,  pink  and  smooth,  in  astonishing  and  startling  contrast 
to  the  brown  folds  of  her  throat  and  the  dried-apple  wrin 
kles  of  her  merry  old  face.  She  had  not  lost  all  her  teeth, 
and  those  remaining  were  white  and  straight;  her  hair 
was  grey,  a  beautiful,  clean  silver-grey,  and  became  her 
decidedly,  set  off  by  silver  combs  and  a  red  flower-  over  one 
ear. 

"Come,  Guillermo,"  she  chirped,  "you  must  see  our 
preparations  before  the  guests  begin  to  arrive." 

First  of  all  she  led  him  to  her  potrero,  the  large  paddock 
where  the  horses  of  her  two  hundred  odd  guests  were  to 
be  turned  out  for  the  night.  Next  to  the  stables,  where 
Hawthorne's  mount  was  in  a  stall  by  Don  Carmelo's. 

"I'm  going  to  stable  all  the  horses  for  Vicente's  family," 
Dona  Juana  remarked,  "and  for  all  the  Eecaldes,  and 
Gregorio's  and  Ventura's  and  dear  old  Bernardo's  and  Gas- 


212  EL   SUPREMO 

par's,  of  course,  and  his  lancers  besides,  or  they'll  burn 
the  place  down,  I  suppose.  The  rest  are  to  be  turned  out 
into  the  potrero,  and  good  enough  for  anybody,  too ! ' ' 

From  the  stables  she  took  him  into  the  orange  groves 
and  showed  the  pots  and  kettles  swung  and  spits  and  jacks 
set  over  heaps  of  fuel  laid  ready  for  lighting,  near  larger 
piles  ranked  for  replenishing  them,  where  the  outdoor  cook 
ing  was  to  be  managed,  since  her  kitchens  would  barely  suf 
fice  for  cooking  to  satisfy  her  distinguished  guests,  and 
substantiate  must  be  hot  and  plenty  for  all  comers  and 
their  countless  servants.  She  called  his  attention  to  the 
festoons  of  flowers  that  hung  from  tree  to  tree,  and  the 
gay,  parti-coloured  lanterns  strung  in  long  line,  each  ready 
to  be  lighted.  Then  they  surveyed  the  similar  decorations 
of  the  verandah  and  of  the  patio,  Dona  Juana  smiling  and 
chattering  like  a  little  girl. 

Then,  with  a  great  air  of  expectancy,  Hawthorne  was 
conducted  through  the  big  drawing-rooms  into  a  smaller 
sola.  There,  at  its  farther  end,  was  a  blaze  of  wax  candles, 
fat  and  tall,  set  in  candlesticks  of  carved  wood,  heavily 
gilded. 

Their  bases  were  hidden  in  fragrant  boughs  of  flowering 
orange,  lime  and  acacia,  banked  on  either  side  of  a  glass- 
fronted,  glass-sided  case  fully  eight  feet  high  and  nearly 
three  feet  square.  In  it  was  a  figure  of  St.  John  the 
Baptist,  after  the  Spanish  idea  and  in  the  Spanish  taste. 
He  was  represented  as  no  wild  man  of  the  desert,  as  no 
rough,  hairy  fanatic.  Not  he.  He  appeared  as  a  sleek  and 
meek  devotee,  his  hair  new  gilded,  his  face  smug  with  fresh 
paint,  eyes  blue,  lashes  bright  black,  every  separate  hair  of 
them;  eyebrows  pencilled,  cheeks  glowing  pink,  lips  red, 
skin  polished.  On  his  head  was  a  magnificent  tiara  of  gold 
filigree-work;  his  broad  lace  collar  was  weighed  down  by 
jewelled  gold  chains,  spread  grandly  over  his  black  velvet 
robe,  which  was  open  enough  to  show  the  embroidered  gir 
dle  confining  his  snow-white  tunic,  and  whose  opulent 
blackness  set  off  the  many  bright-gemmed  rings  loading 
his  slender  fingers.  Under  its  hem  the  straps  of  his  san 
dals  gleamed  with  pearls. 

Behind  him  were  rocks,  moss  and  trees  to  represent  the 
wilderness  in  which  he  cried;  over  him  hovered  a  pink 
and  gold  cherub ;  altogether  he  was  an  unsurpassable  saint. 


ST.    JOHN'S    DAY  213 

Next  Hawthorne  was  given  an  opportunity  to  admire 
the  arrangements  for  the  dancing,  the  hundreds  of  wax 
candles  ready  to  light,  the  slippery  surface  of  the  gleaming 
floors,  the  forethought  for  the  comfort  of  the  musicians, 
and  the  lavish  provision  of  edibles.  The  noted  confection 
ers  of  Asuncion  had  outdone  themselves  in  the  preparation 
of  dulces,  almond  paste,  milk  candy  cut  into  cubes,  nougats 
of  various  nuts,  candied  cactus,  and  other  local  dainties. 

Last  he  was  shown  the  provisions  made  for  abundance  of 
solid  viands,  the  kitchens  and  the  cooks. 

"I'm  hungry  now  at  the  thought  of  it,"  Dona  Juana 
declared.  "Let  us  have  dinner/' 

Dinner  was  as  varied  and  heavy  as  at  the  Mayorgas*, 
although  only  four  of  them  sat  down  to  it. 

"Nothing  like  a  good  hearty  dinner,"  said  Dona  Juana, 
"and  a  long  siesta  after  it.  That  will  put  us  all  in  fine 
condition  for  dancing." 

Certainly  she  did  justice  to  her  excellent  fare.  Haw 
thorne  had  a  good  New  England  appetite,  not  yet  com 
pensated  for  in  the  privations  of  the  river.  Yet  he  could 
not  eat  nearly  as  much  as  his  aged  hostess. 

Dinner  over,  the  voluble  old  lady  lit  her  huge  cigar,  and 
dismissed  Hawthorne,  Don  Carmelo  and  her  grandson  to 
their  rooms  for  a  siesta.  Hawthorne  slept  long  and  well. 
Refreshed  with  sleep  and  a  generous  splashing  in  plenty 
of  water  he  sallied  out  into  the  last  hour  of  the  afternoon, 
just  as  the  lengthening  shadows  began  to  abate  the  heat, 
which,  even  in  June,  Paraguayan  midwinter,  Hawthorne 
found  oppressive.  The  natives,  comparing  the  temperature 
with  that  of  their  midsummer,  December,  called  June  cool, 
and  had  no  objection  at  that  time  of  year  to  being  abroad 
even  at  midday.  By  midaf ternoon,  therefore,  they  began 
to  arrive. 

First  came  paysitos,  country  beaux,  escorting  their  sweet 
hearts  or  sisters  and  sometimes  their  brides.  ^  The  poorer 
brought  their  charges  on  pillions  behind  their  saddles,  or 
convoyed  nags  or  mules  carrying  two  girls  each,  one  in 
the  saddle,  the  other  on  the  pillion.  The  richer  cantered 
beside  two  or  three  or  more  well-horsed  ladies,  riding 
astride. 

Soon  there  came  into  sight  characteristic  ox-teams,  tour 
or  six  oxen  to  a  vehicle,  and  capable  of  full  two  miles  an 


214  EL    SUPREMO 

hour,  if  constantly  goaded  by  the  peon  driver,  who  walked 
beside  the  wheelers.  They  were  yoked  by  a  beam,  almost 
a  log,  fastened  with  raw-hide  thongs  across  in  front  of  their 
long  horns,  which  were  adorned  with  bright  ribbons,  pink, 
red  and  yellow,  sometimes  blue.  They  drew  two-wheeled 
carts  or  four-wheeled  wagons,  springless  and  jolting,  but 
deep  with  soft  mattresses  and  cushions,  on  which,  under 
the  gaily  striped  awnings,  reclined  or  sat  the  ladies,  inter 
spersed  with  misses,  girls  and  little  boys,  and  three  out  of 
every  four  carrying  each  her  infant.  They  were  escorted 
by  their  men-folk  on  horseback,  all  in  ball-room  attire, 
with  huge  silver  spurs  over  their  dancing-pumps,  white  silk 
stockings  on  their  shapely  calves  (against  which  slapped 
the  flat  leather  scabbards  of  their  jangling  sabres),  satin 
knee-breeches,  and  coats  with  far  too  broad  facings  of  silk 
or  satin  or  velvet,  all  of  gay  colours,  no  two  alike,  and  all 
rather  more  than  less  tarnished,  faded  and  worn,  obviously 
old,  sometimes  even  manifestly  heirlooms.  Thrown  grace 
fully  over  their  shoulders  and  dangling  behind  them  flut 
tered  their  capotes,  ample  cloaks  of  the  old  Spanish  cut, 
generally  scarlet,  and  with  white-silk  linings,  mostly  not 
so  threadbare  as  the  coats  they  set  off.  These  were  families 
of  hacendados,  farmers  owning  their  own  land,  and  mighty 
proud  of  it. 

Similarly  convoyed  arrived  the  families  of  the  tenderos, 
shopkeepers  of  Asuncion,  who  reckoned  themselves  a  peg 
above  the  country  proprietors  and  wore  costumes  equally 
grotesque  in  cut  and  far  more  gaudy  in  colour,  glaring  with 
ostentatious  newness. 

Among  and  following  them  came  the  rich  comerciantes, 
ship-owners  or  capitalists  and  their  families,  the  ladies  in 
mule-carts,  scarcely  less  clumsy  than  the  ox-wagons. 

Even  the  poorest  paysitos  had  been  attended  by  at  least 
one  servant,  the  hacendados  by  two  or  more  each,  besides 
slave-girls  with  their  wives;  the  tenderos  brought  nurse 
maids,  ladies'  maids,  valets  and  also  their  cooks  to  assist 
with  the  supper.  The  capitalists  came  with  a  small  horde 
of  negresses  and  mulattoes. 

Hawthorne,  quite  at  home  by  that  time,  and  only  occa 
sionally  and  casually  encountering  Carmelo  or  Dofia  Juana, 
who  left  him  tactfully  to  his  own  devices,  sometimes 
watched  the  arrivals,  sometimes  the  hauling  of  the  wagons, 


ST.    JOHN'S   DAY  215 

carts  and  carriages  to  the  rear  of  the  house,  sometimes 
the  turning  of  the  horses  into  the  potrero  or  of  the  oxen 
into  their  larger  field,  where  they  grazed  sedately,  still 
yoked  in  couples. 

Then  bekold  a  sober-hued  procession  wound  up  the  road 
from  under  the  shade-trees,  a  line  of  bobbing  umbrellas, 
golden  against  the  slant  sun-rays ;  under  them  bare-headed, 
tonsured  friars,  all  obese;  Franciscans  in  brown;  black- 
cloaked  Dominicans  in  white,  and  Recoletanos  in  grey,  their 
bare,  sandalled  feet  sticking  out  under  their  flowing  habits, 
their  mounts  sleek  and  fat,  their  saddles  like  those  of  the 
gentry,  high-peaked,  and  gaudy  with  silver  mountings  over 
their  velvet  or  plush,  red,  yellow,  green  or  blue;  their 
mules  and  horses  banded  and  tasselled  with  housing  to 
match  their  saddles. 

With  each  company  of  friars  was  the  convent  band, 
mounted  on  mules,  carrying  their  instruments  under  their 
arms  or  across  the  saddle  in  front  of  them. 

Every  friar  had  a  sunshade,  all  were  portly  and  rubi 
cund,  still  more  portly  their  jovial  priors,  Pai  Procopio 
/3aca,  Prior  of  the  Recoletanos;  Padre  Ignacio  Maestre, 
Prior  of  the  Dominicans ;  Fray  Santiago  Eeloyos,  Prior  of 
the  Franciscans,  and,  most  portly  of  all,  Vicar  General 
Damaso  Montiel,  acting  head  of  the  Paraguayan  church  in 
the  absence  of  the  Bishop. 

They  swung  heavily  off  their  grunting  mounts,  removed 
their  broad-brimmed  hats,  and  knelt  down  out  of  reverence 
for  St.  John. 

The  bands  played  jubilate. 

After  the  tune  came  to  an  end  all  rose  and  trooped  into 
the  house  to  pay  their  respects  to  St.  John  in  person. 

When  most  of  them  were  in  the  house,  the  sound  of  a 
high,  shrill,  squalling  shriek,  apparently  from  miles  away, 
struck  faintly  but  distinctly  on  their  ears  in  the  silence 
after  the  ba?id-playing. 

"The  Payaguas  are  having  their  festival//  Fray  Ignacio 
Maestre  remarked,  "as  well  as  we,  and  their  fun  is  at  its 
height. " 

"Can  any  human  voice  be  heard  three  leagues?"  Haw 
thorne  asked  Carmelo  as  the  last  friar  vanished  through 
the  doorway. 

"A  sober  Payagua,"  said  Carmelo,  "can  make  himself 


216  EL   SUPREMO 

heard  a  league  and  a  half  at  least  in  calm  weather.  A 
whole  band  of  Payaguas,  all  drunk,  can  be  heard  three 
leagues  in  all  directions  and  on  a  still  night  four  leagues." 

After  the  friars,  came,  with  retinues  of  slave-women  and 
men-servants,  the  Spanish  aristocracy  of  Asuncion,  Jovel- 
lanoses,  Recaldes,  Echagiies,  Figueredos,  Domeques  and 
Mayorgas.  The  ladies  rode  in  antique  carriages  modelled 
on  the  state  coaches  of  Madrid,  of  the  Viceroys  of  Lima,  of 
the  Intendentes  of  Buenos  Aires ;  heavy  vehicles,  swung  on 
long  leather  straps,  between  axles  very  far  apart.  These 
were  drawn  by  mules;  the  Mayorga  coach  alone  by  horses, 
and  it  alone  had  the  spokes  of  its  wheels  gilded,  an  osten 
tation  affected  only  by  families  laying  claims  to  descent 
from  the  haughty  stock  of  Spanish  grandees,  to  whom  this 
pretension  was  acquiesced  in  by  their  compatriots. 

Beside  these  coaches,  before  them,  behind  them,  pranced 
the  dainty-footed  steeds  of  their  men-folk,  attired  in  garb 
less  ancient  than  the  paysitos,  less  glaring  than  the  ten- 
deros,  but  equally  antiquated.  Their  saddles  were  like 
those  of  the  farmers,  traders  and  friars,  but  even  more 
velvety,  more  highly  peaked,  more  heavily  studded  and 
edged  with  silver  ornaments.  They  differed  from  the  rest 
in  that  there  dangled  beside  their  white-silk  calves  not 
the  heavy  sabres  of  the  country  beaux  and  proprietors,  nor 
the  short  hangers  of  the  traders  and  merchants,  but  the 
long  slender  rapiers  of  Castilian  court  tradition. 

Last,  according  to  their  conception  of  their  dignity  and 
importance,  came  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  local 
government.  Some  were  family  men  beside  mule-drawn 
carryalls:  Don  Gumesindo  Estagarribia,  Secretary  of 
State,  more  Castilian  than  any  Spaniard,  yet  immensely 
proud  of  his  Creole  birth,  fat,  and  vastly  self-important, 
pompous  in  his  blue  coat,  red  waistcoat,  white  knee-breeches 
and  crimson  capote,  displaying  himself  one  huge  republican 
cockade,  swelling  on  his  big,  black  horse;  Don  Larios  Gal- 
van,  ex-secretary  and  proud  of  that,  small  and  dark,  in 
sober  black,  as  became  a  doctor  of  laws ;  Don  Jacinto  Ruiz, 
ex-notary  of  the  second  junta,  somewhat  plumper  than 
Don  Larios  and  even  more  dignified,  but  gay  in  green  and 
yellow  for  the  occasion;  Don  Fernando  de  la  Mora,  ex- 
member  of  a  junta,  and  their  friends  and  equals,  doctors 
of  laws  all,  Don  Porfirio  Somellera,  Don  Eustaquio  Baiz, 


ST.    JOHN'S    DAY  217 

Don  Plutarco  Bedoya.    With  them  rode  that  jovial  grass- 
widower,  Don  Jenofonte  Bargas,  his  huge  head  of  hair  all 
Eomatum   and    frizzes   under   his   gold-laced   cocked   hat, 
ater,  yet  more  doctors  of  laws,   Don  Hilarion  Decoud, 
young  Don  Policarpo  Patinos,  and  Don  Andres  Villarino, 
secretaries  to  the  dread  Dictator. 

Also  there  were  the  ex-generals,  Don  Jerman  Caballero 
on  a  dapple-grey,  and  Don  Fulgencio  Yegros  on  an  aston 
ishing  cream-coloured  stallion;  and  with  them  other  ex- 
members  of  the  juntas;  priests  independently  wealthy, 
without  parish  duties  and  living  like  bachelors  of  leisure; 
Padre  Don  Melquiades  Caballero,  uncle  of  the  Dictator, 
Padre  Don  Lisardo  Bogarin,  both  former  members  of 
juntas,  and  with  them  Padre  Don  Raimundo  Loisaga.  Ex 
cept  Bogarin  they  were  swordless,  but  otherwise  undistin- 
guishable  from  the  black-garbed  doctors  of  laws.  Along 
with  or  after  them  came  the  curanderos,  practitioners  of 
medicine  or  surgery,  Don  Esopo  Narvaez,  Don  Fructuoso 
Baiguer,  Don  Enrique  Sabola. 

Among  and  between  these  dignitaries  and  ex-dignitaries 
dribbled  in  the  thinning  stream  of  paysitos  and  paysitas. 
With  the  last  of  these  appeared  a  notable  cavalcade :  gentle, 
modest  old  Don  Bernardo  Velasco,  attended  only  by  his  one 
servant ;  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda,  aloft  on  a  long-legged, 
long-bodied,  sleek  white  horse,  a  chattering  little  godson  on. 
the  saddle-peak  in  front  of  him,  a  merry  little  goddaughter 
on  the  pillion  behind  him,  her  fairy  fingers  playing  with 
the  big,  flat  white  mother-of-pearl  buttons  of  his  light  drab 
coat,  around  which  her  slender  little  arms  were  clasped; 
and  Don  Manuel  Bianquet,  in  quiet  brown,  a  very  small 
hanger  at  his  side,  beaming  with  happiness  upon  the  six-ox 
wagon  they  convoyed,  where,  with  four  other  ladies  and 
several  misses  and  little  boys,  rode  his  little  boys  and 
pretty  daughters  with  their  more  than  pretty  mother, 
Dona  Juanita,  and  her  beautiful  charge,  Senorita  Ven 
tura  Velarde. 

The  arrival  of  this  vehicle  before  the  portico  started  a 
thrilling  rumour  which  ran  through  all  the  assemblage,  in 
doors  and  out,  from  the  patio  to  the  potrero,  and  brought 
them  flocking  from  the  orange-groves,  the  lawns  and  the 
drawing-rooms.  All  came.  The  friars  dissembled  their 
curiosity,  the  dons  made  no  pretence  of  dissembling,  the 


218  EL   SUPREMO 

women,  Spanish  dignity  completely  thrown  off,  were  almost 
a,  mob  about  the  two  ladies. 

For  Dona  Juanita,  bewitching  in  a  modish  Portefio  ball 
gown  of  pale  blue  silk,  cut  according  to  the  latest  fashion 
of  Buenos  Aires,  and  Ventura,  high-coloured  with  excite 
ment  and  magnificent  in  a  similar  canary-coloured  satin, 
wore  corsets ! 

Corsets  were  then  for  the  first  time  worn  by  any  woman 
on  Paraguayan  soil.  For  the  first  time  a  corseted  waist 
was  beheld  by  admiring  dons  and  envious  Senoras  of  Asun 
cion. 

Hawthorne,  in  the  background  under  the  portico,  gazed 
with  interest  and  amusement  at  the  scene.  Under  the 
waning  light  of  the  last  moments  before  sunset  the  slant 
rays  fell  on  the  knot  of  soberly  garbed  friars,  nudging  each 
other  and  giggling  behind  their  hands,  on  the  ring  of  parti 
coloured  gallants  surrounding  the  women,  on  the  heaving, 
jostling,  chattering  mob  of  excited  ladies,  all  talking  at 
once,  loudly  and  shrilly,  all  screaming  with  excitement,  all 
pushing  to  get  near,  a  mass  of  dark  heads,  pink  necks  and 
white  gowns  about  the  central  spot  of  colour,  Dona  Juanita 
in  blue,  Senorita  Ventura  in  yellow,  and  old  Dofia  Juana 
in  crimson  beside  them,  admiring  and  shrieking  down  the 
murmurs  of  the  scandalised  few. 

The  first  fury  of  interest  abated  by  a  hasty  inspection 
of  the  novel  fashion,  the  newcomers  passed  through  their 
welcomers  to  pay  their  respects  to  St.  John. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  FIESTA  AT  ITAPUA 

THE  sun  set  over  the  hills  of  the  Gran  Chaco  in  a  whirl 
of  gold  and  crimson  cloud  streamers,  an  unsurpassable 
display  of  splendours;  the  moon  rose  calm  and  full  over 
the  varied  prospect  of  winding  silver  streams,  cultivated 
valleys  and  wooded  hillsides,  as  bright  as  ever  moon  shone 
from  any  sky. 

The  lamps  and  candles  indoors,  the  lanterns  in  the  patio 
jand  in  the  groves  were  lighted.     The  convent  bands,  the 


THE    FIESTA   AT   ITAPUA         219 

Dominican  under  the  verandah,  the  Franciscan  in  the 
patio,  the  Kecoletano  and  that  of  the  Cathedral  out  on 
the  lawn  on  either  side  of  the  house,  burst  into  gay  music, 
fiddles  and  'cellos,  clarinets  and  hautboys,  all  shrilling 
together.  Everybody  who  was  not  crowding  about  St. 
John  in  one  sala,  or  Ventura  and  Juanita  in  another,  was 
dancing  in  the  largest  sola  of  all,  in  the  patio,  or  in  the 
verandah,  or  else  was  already  eating  in  the  dining-hall  or 
among  the  orange  trees,  where  the  long  trestle-tables  were 
spread  under  the  festoons  of  lanterns. 

While  the  brilliance  of  the  moonlight  and  the  blaze  of 
the  candles  within  and  the  lanterns  without  was  still  min 
gled  with  and  subdued  by  the  soft  glow  of  the  brief  twi 
light,  the  cry  was  raised  by  the  watchers  on  the  road  and 
passed  on  to  the  mansion: 

"Carai!    Cared!" 

The  music  redoubled,  all  the  bands  at  once  playing  the 
five-year-old  national  air,  the  tune  Zevallos'  cavalry  had 
sung  at  the  second  battle  of  Paraguary.  At  the  sound  of 
it  and  the  continued  calls  of 

"Carai!    Carai!" 

dancing  and  feasting  were  suspended  for  the  time,  and  all, 
gentlemen  and  ladies,  maids  and  serving  men,  save  the 
musicians  and  a  few  cooks,  flocked  to  the  portico  and  the 
!awns  to  welcome  the  Dictator. 

Six  lancers  rode  before  him,  the  tricolour  pennons  on 
Lheir  lances  aflutter,  their  red  forage  caps  jauntily  atilt, 
their  yellow  faces  serious,  their  white  coats  flying  open 
over  their  red  waistcoats,  their  white  trousers  tucked  into 
their  top-boots  of  respectable  European  pattern,  their 
sabres  clanking,  their  slung  carbines  swinging  to  and  fro; 
six  rode  behind  him,  their  officer  well  in  their  rear. 
Midway  of  the  long  interval  between  the  two  squads 
rode  Francia,  his  crimson  capote  draped  gracefully 
over  his  left  shoulder  and  fluttering  behind  him,  his 
form  very  erect  in  his  tight-fitting  blue  general's  uniform 

rj|-\r\  4- 

At  the  mid-front  of  the  portico  Don  Beltran  assisted  the 
great  man  to  alight  and  Dona  Juana  greeted  him.  Bopi, 
who  had  ridden  up  on  mule-back  some  time  before  and 
loitered  about  unnoticed,  slipped  through  the  crowd,  knelt 
down,  and  unbuckled  the  spurs  from  his  master,  who  ther* 


220  EL    SUPREMO 

upon  passed  into  the  house,  into  the  second  of  the  smaller 
solas.  There,  standing  between  the  windows,  Dona  Juana, 
Beltran,  Hawthorne,  Don  Gumesindo  Estagarribia  and  his 
two  secretaries  about  him,  he  was  offered  and  partook  of 
his  mate,  which  he  prepared  deliberately,  Dona  Juana  tak 
ing  the  bowl  from  the  tray  on  which  a  servant  held  the 
urn  and  other  apparatus,  and  offering  it  to  him  with  her 
own  hands. 

Meanwhile  the  dancing  and  feasting  recommenced.  Out 
side  the  moonlight  was  brighter  than  any  silver.  Yet  the 
big,  cool  stars  came  out  clear  in  the  velvety  bluish-blackness 
of  the  tropic  firmament,  and  the  yellow  glare  from  the  win 
dows  and  the  glow  of  the  jewel-coloured  lanterns  in  the 
groves  sent  long  shafts  of  radiance  between  the  shrub 
beries  across  the  grass. 

Beyond  the  variegated  brilliance  about  the  mansion  the 
landscape,  a  rolling  alternation  of  greenish-black  rounded 
hills  and  mist-filled  valleys,  was  all  one  pearly  glimmer 
under  the  moon.  Out  of  its  translucent  dimness  emerged 
white-clad  troops  of  peasantry,  each  party  with  one  or  more 
guitars  twanging  as  they  came.  Unasked  and  completely 
welcome,  they  flocked  in  on  the  rumour  of  gaieties  of  the 
great  folk,  gathered  about  the  outdoor  fires  or  tables,  and 
danced  about  the  edges  of  the  groves  or  lawns.  Their 
guitarreros  taking  up  and  reinforcing  the  tune  of  the  near 
est  band,  they  shared  in  and  added  to  the  pleasure  of  their 
betters  nearer  the  house,  about  it  or  inside.  Hawthorne 
admired  and  relished  the  mutual  comprehension  and  per 
fect  amenity  of  all  classes  in  their  revelry. 

Indoors,  the  chief  spectacle,  while  it  lasted,  was  Francia  \ 
reception,  for  such  his  visit  inevitably  became.  After  he 
had  partaken  of  his  mate,  paid  his  respects  to  Saint  John 
in  his  crystal  shrine,  passed  through  the  card-room,  where 
his  entrance  caused  a  hush,  traversed  the  larger  salas,  in 
which  the  dancing  took  on  a  subtle  difference  while  he 
looked  on,  and  viewed  from  the  verandah  the  revelry  of 
the  populace  on  the  lawn  and  the  beauty  of  the  moonlit 
prospect,  Francia  returned  to  the  small  sola.  To  one  cor 
ner,  beyond  the  right  hand  window,  his  hosts  tactfully  with 
drew,  Hawthorne  with  them.  In  the  opposite  corner 
hovered  the  great  man's  two  secretaries,  middle-aged  Don 
Andres  Villarino  and  young  Don  Policarpo  Patinos;  and 


THE   FIESTA  AT   ITAPUA         221 

also,  after  they  had  severally  paid  their  respects,  Don 
Gumesindo  Estagarribia,  Secretary  of  State,  even  more 
pompous  on  foot  than  on  horseback ;  Don  Olegario  Decoud, 
State  Treasurer,  a  dry,  spare,  hook-nosed  old  man,  cousin 
of  Don  Hilarion  Decoud ;  Don  Basilio  Goyez,  Finance  Min 
ister,  not  a  particle  abashed  by  his  recent  night  in  the 
guard-house ;  Don  Ponciano  Velaustegui,  State  Notary  Pub 
lic,  and  Don  Lorenzo  Marote,  Assessor  of  Customs. 

Scores  of  wax  tapers  set  in  tall,  silver-shafted  candelabra, 
topping  taller  standards  of  heavily  gilt  carved  wood,  stuck 
in  brass  sconces,  standing  in  girandoles  on  the  brackets, 
made  the  room  a  blaze  of  light.  The  windows,  nine  feet 
high  from  floor  to  lintel,  gaped  wide,  unglazed^  like  all 
house  windows  then  in  Paraguay.  Between  the*  two,  in 
front  of  a  dark  red  wall,  stood  the  Dictator. 

On  his  trim  feet  were  low,  square-toed  shoes  with  small 
gold  buckles.  Above  his  white  silk  stockings  equally  small 
gold  buckles  fastened  his  white  cassimere  knee-breeches. 
His  waistcoat  was  of  the  same  white  cassimere,  the  only 
white  waistcoat  in  all  that  motley  assemblage.  His  court- 
sword,  the  merest  thread  of  a  rapier,  had  a  fine  hilt  with 
white  shagreen  on  the  grip,  wound  with  gold  wire,  and  the 
guard  and  pommel  gold  also.  His  coat  was  long-tailed, 
faced  with  buff,  and  itself  of  a  very  dark  blue,  set  off  by 
narrow  gold  lace.  His  hair  was  powdered  and  gathered  into 
a  close  queue  behind.  His  high  forehead,  piercing  black 
eyes,  straight,  chisel-edged  nose,  firm  mouth  and  small, 
strong  jaw  made  up  a  face  that  no  one  could  have  failed 
to  see  belonged  to  a  born  leader  of  men.  There  were  in 
his  figure  and  pose  not  a  little  of  the  majesty  of  Napoleon 
and  still  more  of  the  impressive  personal  rectitude  that 
irradiated  Washington. 

To  pay  their  respects  to  him  the  guests  began  to  flock 
in  from  the  other  solas,  from  the  patio,  from  the  verandah, 
even  from  out  of  doors.  As  soon  as  the  stream  of  salutants 
was  well  in  motion  Dona  Juana  slipped  off  to  look  after 
the  larger  multitudes  of  her  humbler  gnests,  after  the 
countless  children  and  their  numerous  mothers. 

Hawthorne,  at  first  alone  with  Beltran,  saw  approach  to 
do  homage  and  pass  in  review,  all  the  important  men  of 
Asuncion,  among  them  every  one  of  the  conspirators  of 
Dr.  Bargas'  wine- shop;  all  the  rest  of  Francia's  enemies 


222  EL   SUPREMO 

whom  he  saw  there  for  the  first  time,  and  with  them  many 
of  their  sons,  wives  and  sisters. 

There  was  a  certain  conscious  but  wordless  and  entirely 
spontaneous  arrangement  of  the  courtiers.  According  to 
instinctive  local  ideas  of  precedence  and  their  mutual  sense 
of  their  relative  importance  and  standing  in  the  community 
they  marshalled  themselves. 

First  came  the  clergy,  Vicar-General  Montiel,  the  three 
priors,  and  their  lesser  brethren  in  white,  brown  and 
grey ;  then  the  priests  of  the  city  parishes ;  lastly  those  un 
attached  priestly  idlers,  whose  functions  in  the  community 
Hawthorne  had  not  yet  comprehended  to  his  own  full 
satisfaction;  Padre  Don  Melquiades  Caballero,  the  Dic 
tator's  uncle  and  former  associate  on  the  first  government 
junta;  Padre  Raimundo  Loisaga  and  Fray  Lisardo  Bo- 
garin,  still  wearing  his  strange  jumble  of  incongruous 
garments  and  his  discordant  sabre. 

Francia's  greeting  to  all  was  most  tactful,  subtly  dif- 
ferentia.ted  according  to  each  man's  individuality,  yet  uni 
formly  gracious  and  kindly,  particularly  to  his  ascetic  uncle. 

Then  came  the  ex-generals.  Hawthorne  watched  with 
keen  interest  Francia's  manner  towards  these  men,  whom 
he  had  stripped  of  the  honours  and  emoluments  they  had 
won  by  their  sudden  promotions  and  largely  accidental 
successes  during  the  brief  war  for  independence.  Their 
demeanour  towards  him  varied  from  Gamarra's  servile 
cringing,  through  Yegros'  timidity  ill-concealed  beneath  a 
too  truculent  bravado;  Zevallos'  bungling  attempt  at  an 
assumption  of  jauntiness;  Cabanas'  impeccable  gentleman- 
liness  to  Caballero 's  awkward  frigidity.  Francia  showed 
no  sense  of  triumph  over  them  nor  of  condescension.  He 
adapted  himself  to  each,  conversed  a  bit  with  each ;  thawed 
his  cousin's  attempt  at  icy  reserve;  put  Zevallos  at  ease 
with  a  jest;  shook  the  ex-consul's  hand  heartily  again  and 
again,  calling  him  " companero" ;  was  neither  curt  nor  con 
temptuous  to  Gamarra,  and  looked  into  Cabanas'  eyes  with 
frank  pleasure. 

*  *  Don  Atancio, ' '  he  said,  retaining  his  grasp  of  his  hand 
and  placing  the  left  hand  on  the  epauletted  shoulder,  "I 
am  always  glad  to  see  you.  Come  oftener  to  the  Govern 
ment  House.  You  are  eternally  welcome.  If  all  those 
with  whom  I  have  had  the  misfortune  to  have  differences 


THE   FIESTA   AT   ITAPUA         223 

accepted  the  present  state  of  affairs  as  you  do  I  should  be 
a  happier  man  and  Paraguay  a  luckier  country. " 

He  was  almost  equally  cordial  to  ex-colonel  Don  Sin- 
foriano  Guerreros  and  a  half-dozen  more  ex-colonels,  all 
inclined  to  be  sulky  as  they  approached,  all  smiling  as 
they  passed  on,  each  soothed  by  some  apt  compliment. 

The  meeting  between  the  ex-Intendente  and  the  Dictator 
was  to  Hawthorne  a  beautiful  and  pathetic  sight.  Fran 
cia 's  bearing  showed  no  self-congratulation  at  receiving 
the  homage  of  the  former  governor  to  whose  power  and 
prerogatives  he  had  more  than  succeeded ;  he  appeared  as 
a  younger  man  glad  to  greet  an  older  man  for  whose  past 
kindness  he  was  sincerely  grateful.  Don  Bernardo,  on  his 
part,  during  his  approach  to  Francia  and  his  chat  with 
him,  wore  the  self-same  smile  of  universal  good-will  with 
which  he  had  greeted  Dona  Juana  or  beamed  upon  Don 
Gregorio's  favourite  godchildren. 

Don  Gregorio,  in  fact,  followed  Don  Bernardo,  upon  some 
subtle  assumption  that  his  position  as  godfather  in  general 
to  all  Paraguay  made  him  only  less  important  than  an 
ex-governor. 

After  him  came  those  other  ex-members  of  past  juntas 
who  were  neither  clerical  nor  military :  Don  Larios  Galvan, 
Don  Jacinto  Euiz,  and  Don  Fernando  de  la  Mora.  For 
these  Francia  had  but  a  brief  word  apiece,  though  he  ex 
changed  views  on  the  gout  with  Don  Fernando  before 
greeting  the  other  doctors  of  laws;  Don  Plutarco  Bedoya, 
Don  Hilarion  Deeoud,  Don  Pornrio  Somellera,  and  the  rest. 
Hawthorne  remarked  something  revolting  in  Don  Porfirio's 
personality  and  in  his  bearing  towards  the  Dictator.  He 
had  a  very  long,  thin  nose,  the  tip  of  which  overhung  his 
upper  lip,  suggesting  a  tapir's  semi-proboscis.  Yet  the 
impression  he  made  was  more  reptilian  than  mammalian. 
Francia 's  demeanour  towards  this  would-be  demagogue  was 
the  perfection  of  discretion,  as  it  was  likewise,  though  with 
a  difference,  towards  Don  Eustaquio  Baiz,  his  rival  for  the 
secretaryship  of  the  first  junta.  For  Dr.  Bargas,  that  flam 
boyant  Mendozan,  he  had  a  genial,  if  distinctly  amused, 
greeting. 

Following  tLe  doctors  of  laws  came  the  doctors  of  medi 
cine,  all  in  blc'^k:  pompous  Dr.  Fructuaso  Baiguor,  lean 
old  Dr.  Arsrnio  Domh-^uez,  fat  old  Dr.  Esopo  T-arvaez, 


224  EL   SUPREMO 

staid  Dr.  Enrique  Sabola,  and  last  Dr.  Parlett,  very  sober. 

''Ah,  Don  Tomas!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "Charmed  to 
see  you.  If  any  one  overeats,  all  the  wisdom  of  the  London 
College  of  Surgeons  is  at  hand  to  save  a  precious  life. 
Cured  any  more  cases  of  lockjaw,  Don  Tomas?" 

"No  other  case  of  pasmo  real  has  been  presented  to  me 
for  cure,"  Parlett  replied. 

"You  might  cure  another,"  Francia  rejoined.  "Two1 
happy  accidents  are  possible.  For  I  maintain,  Don  Tomas, 
that  paxmo  real  can  never  be  cured  except  by  accidental 
survival.  But  you  deserve  all  the  repute  you  gained  by 
that  cure,  for  your  genuine  cures  are  almost  equally  mar 
vellous.  ' ' 

Dr.  Parlett,  when  released  from  the  Dictator's  banter, 
joined  Hawthorne  and  stood  beside  him,  commenting  from 
time  to  time  on  Francia  or  on  those  at  the  moment  in  talk 
with  him. 

Among  the  shoal  of  men  distinguished  only  by  wealth 
who  followed,  Hawthorne  saw  Francia  honour  Don  Vicente 
Mayorga  by  special  geniality.  But  he  concealed  with  diffi 
culty,  apparently,  his  contempt  for  the  brothers-in-law, 
Don  Gil  Romero  and  Don  Arturo  Balaguer.  Hawthorne 
overheard  him  say  to  Mayorga,  whom  he  had  detained  after 
the  others  had  passed  on,  "You  know,  Vicente,  how  much 
I  value  your  solid  contribution  to  the  prosperity  of  our 
community,  but  I  lose  my  patience  whenever  I  am  reminded 
of  the  parasites  you  support,  of  those  butterfly  idlers.  Do- 
nothings  are  almost  worse  than  mischief-makers." 

Yet  he  thawed  completely  to  Romero's  little  son. 

Of  the  entire  spectacle,  so  novel  and  so  gorgeous,  because 
of  the  rich  velvet,  silks  and  satins,  the  profusion  of  gold 
and  silver  lace,  the  glitter  of  scabbard-hilts  and  buttons, 
no  feature  struck  Hawthorne  more  than  the  presence  of 
many  little  boys,  not  merely  of  twelve  or  so,  but  positively 
of  ten  or  even  of  no  more  than  eight,  habited  precisely  after 
the  same  fashion  as  their  elders,  with  little  gold-headed 
canes  in  their  hands,  beplumed,  minute  cocked  hats  under 
their  arms,  and  minikin  court-swords  at  their  sides,  com 
porting  themselves  with  all  the  gravity  and  self-possession 
proper  to  men  of  sixty. 

Of  these  not  the  least  charming  was  wee  Don  Manrique 
'Romero,  a  really  cherubic  child,  and  a  perfect  miniature 


THE    FIESTA   AT   ITAPUA         225 

of  his  handsome  father  to  the  last  thread  of  his  clothing, 
his  tiny  feet  in  iridescent  shoes  with  gold  buckles,  his  Lilli 
putian  court  sword,  daintily  managed,  never  in  the  way  of 
his  white  silk  calves,  his  graceful  childishness  gorgeous  in 
a  red-satin  waistcoast,  glaringly  green  satin  knee-breeches 
and  red-faced  green  satin  coat.  As  grave  as  any  Don, 
General  or  ecclesiastic  of  them  all,  he  made  his  obeisance 
to  the  Dictator  with  perfect  ease  and  propriety  and  was 
received  like  the  rest  of  these  strange  children,  even  more 
than  the  rest  of  them,  with  the  gravest  and  most  formal 
courtesy,  as  a  person  of  the  greatest  importance,  with  no 
tinge  of  sarcasm  in  the  great  man's  carefully  considerate 
manner. 

As  to  Mayorga,  Francia  was  more  than  kindly  to  Don 
Antonio  Recalde  and  Don  Pascual  Echagiie  and  conversed 
with  them  about  imports,  warehousing  and  wholesale  trade 
as  he  did  with  other  "Dons"  about  retailing  and  shop- 
keeping,  and  about  river-navigation,  ship-captains,  and 
crews  with  Don  Meliton  Isasi  and  Don  Mauricio  Zelaya. 

Hawthorne  mentally  commended  the  Dictator  for  the 
way  in  which  he  made  easy  for  poor  Don  Jose  Carisimo  his 
palpitating  and  fluttering  attempt  at  apologies.  The  fat 
old  gentleman  was  a  mere  quaking  bog  of  jelly  as  he  ap 
proached  the  Dictator,  his  calves  waggling  in  his  white 
silk  stockings,  his  paunch  swagging  pendulously,  his  triple 
chin  undulating,  his  cheeks  wagging.  His  voice  died 
away. 

"A  mere  slip  of  the  tongue,"  Francia  said.  "Of  course, 
I  had  to  be  stern,  but  that  was  meant  for  others  who 
might  have  presumed  intentionally.  I  comprehended  per 
fectly,  I  assure  you." 

The  sight  of  Don  Lampadio  Casal  of  Limpio  and  his 
cousin,  Don  Ladislao  Casal  of  Ibirai,  brought  a  smile  of 
lively  pleasure  to  the  Dictator's  countenance. 

"  Ah ! "  he  exclaimed.  ' '  If  all  wealthy  Paraguayans  were 
as  loyal  patriots  as  you  two,  governing  would  indeed  be  a 
bed  of  rose-leaves." 

Don  Cipriano  Domeque  Francia  greeted  more  nearly 
with  hauteur  than  any  man  whose  approach  to  him  Haw 
thorne  observed.  To  Don  Bermudo  Larreta,  that  very  bald 
man,  he  said  merely: 

"I  have  always  the  same  thought  at  sight  of  you,  Ber- 


226  EL   SUPREMO 

mudo,  and  that  is:  how  can  a  tongue  be  at  once  so  blunt 
and  so  sharp?" 

Don  Prudencio  la  Guardia  he  greeted  heartily,  shaking 
him  by  the  hand  and  calling  him  ' '  My  dearest  enemy ! ' ' 

"If  all  my  enemies,"  he  continued,  "were  as  open  and  as 
fair  as  you,  Don  Prudencio,  I  should  find  the  world  far 
easier  to  cope  with." 

As  the  throng  began  to  thin  out  men  commenced  to 
bring  up  their  wives,  sisters  and  daughters  to  greet  the  Dic 
tator.  Some,  like  the  dignitaries  and  ex-dignitaries,  the 
May  or  gas  and  Recaldes,  had  themselves  previously  made 
their  obeisance;  others,  like  obese  Don  Baltasar  Figueredo 
and  his  tall  blonde  wife,  or  bony  Don  Eenato  Jovellanos 
and  his  plump  little  Doila  Pancha,  appeared  then  for  the 
first  time.  Many  more  couples  followed,  and  then  a  sort  of 
jumble  of  several  men  and  a  few  women,  all  manifestly 
embarrassed. 

"Watch  Petrona  Zevallos-Machain ! "  Parlett  whispered 
to  Hawthorne. 

In  fact,  the  leader  of  the  uneasy  band  was  Don  Cayetano 
Machain,  Francia 's  successful  rival,  who  seemed  now  to 
gain  a  sort  of  countenance  from  the  presence  of  his  wife, 
to  feel  that  she  shed  about  her  an  atmosphere,  so  to  say, 
of  support  and  protection.  So,  for  that  matter,  it  seemed 
that  his  and  her  kin  felt;  for  his  brother,  dry,  spare  Don 
Estanislao,  her  brother  Segundo  Zevallos,  their  cousins,  the 
Caballeros,  all  came  up  in  flock,  as  it  were,  under  the 
shadow  of  her  wing ;  even  military  Don  Valeriano  Zevallos 
and  Don  Jerman  Caballero  reappearing  in  her  train,  as 
also  old  Padre  Melquiades  Caballero. 

Reflecting  on  the  tale  of  heart-burning  and  deceptions  he 
had  heard  from  Don  Bernardo,  Hawthorne  watched,  with 
more  than  curiosity,  this  first  meeting  after  so  many  years 
between  the  jilted  scholar  and  the  fiercely  regretted  sweet 
heart,  whose  loss  had  so  embittered  him,  in  the  presence  of 
the  very  men  whose  lies  had  separated  them. 

Dona  Petrona  was  pale  but  self-possessed ;  Francia  kindly 
and  reminiscent,  with  no  tinge  of  any  remains  of  burnt-out 
resentment. 

It  was  interesting  also  to  compare  Francia  with  his 
numerous  cousins  and  note  the  similarities  and  differences. 
Each  was  a  little  like  him  in  some  single  characteristic-, 


THE   FIESTA   AT    ITAPUA         227 

one  in  bearing,  another  in  expression,  yet  others  in  some 
one  feature.  Don  Estanislao,  whose  full  face  did  not 
resemble  Francia  in  the  least,  showed  a  visible  similarity 
when  both  were  viewed  in  profile,  though  the  likeness  was  by 
no  means  as  striking  when  the  two  men  were  together 
as  it  had  been  when  Don  Estanislao  had  suddenly  appeared 
in  the  doorway  at  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop. 

After  the  convocation  of  cousins  had  come  and  gone, 
leaving  only  old  Padre  Melquiades,  Francia 's  favourites, 
Don  Vicente,  General  Cabanas,  and  the  two  Casals  gravi 
tated  naturally  back  to  him  and  formed  a  group  about 
him  in  animated  converse. 

To  the  Dictator  thus  surrounded,  approached  Don  Man 
uel  Bianquet  with  his  handsome  Dona  Juanita.  Beltran 
himself  was  in  the  act  of  presenting  them  when  in  the 
doorway  opposite  the  Dictator  appeared  Dona  Juana  and 
Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda,  convoying  between  them 
Senorita  Ventura  Velarde.  She  caught  Francia 's  attention 
the  instant  she  stood  framed  in  the  doorway,  her  yellow 
satin  bright  like  a  flame  flanked  by  Doiia  Juana 's  deep 
crimson  gown  and  Don  Gregorio 's  pearl  drab  coat,  her 
raven  black  coiffure  conspicuous  between  her  godmother's 
silver  locks  and  her  godfather's  powdered  curls. 

Hawthorne,  electrified  instanter,  missed  no  feature  of 
the  situation.  Francia  called  Don  Manuel  by  name,  ac 
knowledged  Beltran's  presentation  of  the  sojourning  mer 
chant  and  his  newly  arrived  wife,  was  gracious,  spoke 
fittingly  though  briefly  with  both  the  lady  and  her  husband, 
but  did  it  all  mechanically,  as  if  in  a  trance.  Hawthorne 
half  suspected  that  he  never  really  saw  at  all  either  Don 
Manuel  or  Dona  Juanita,  any  more  than  if  they  had  not 
been  present.  His  eyes  were  only  for  Ventura  from  the 
moment  they  lighted  on  her. 

The  Bianquets  passed  on;  Ventura  and  her  god-parents 
approached. 

Midway  of  Ventura's  graceful  curtsey  Francia  spoke: 

"My  dear  young  lady,  you  are  very  like  your  mother." 

And  he  took  both  of  her  hands,  as  if  she  were  an  old 
friend. 

"Your  mother,"  he  continued,  "I  never  spoke  to.  A 
Carranza  was  too  high  for  a  poor  student  lad.  But  she 
threw  me  a  rose  once ;  I  have  it  still,  dried  where  I  pressed 


228  EL   SUPREMO 

it  in  between  the  leaves  of  my  Cancionero  General.  Our 
eyes  never  met  but  that  once,  yet  I  recognise  her  eyes  in 
your  eyes.  I  saw  her  but  twice  later  and  never,  of  course, 
after  she  went  to  live  at  San  Bernardino.  But  you  seem 
very  like  her,  in  all  respects,  though  even  more  beautiful/' 

Ventura,  naturally,  blushed  almost  as  crimson  as  her 
godmother's  silk  gown.  Francia,  quick  to  rise  to  a  situa 
tion,  recommenced: 

"  Apart  from  any  recollections  of  your  sainted  mother,  I 
have  been  most  eager  to  meet  you  since  I  heard  of  your 
return  to  Paraguay.  I  wish  to  learn  from  you  all  I  can 
of  President  Madison,  of  the  English  court,  still  more  of 
the  court  of  Napoleon.  You  are  at  home  in  French,  of 
course.  Let  us  talk  French.  I  enjoy  using  that  language 
and  rarely  have  an  opportunity  to  converse  in  it." 

At  this  Ventura  recovered  her  self-possession.  Francia 
was  capable  of  diffusing  a  magical  personal  charm  when 
he  chose  and  now  he  exerted  all  his  powers.  Ventura  felt 
the  fascination  of  his  personality  and  felt  also,  at  once, 
that  she  was  receiving  no  superficial  compliment  to  her  good 
looks,  but  that  the  great  man  was  immediately  interested 
not  only  in  what  she  had  to  say,  but  also  in  the  way  she 
said  it.  She  relished  the  tribute  to  her  intellectuality  and 
warmed  to  her  subject.  She  was  a  good  talker  and  enjoyed 
talking.  He  looked  down  at  her  not  as  an  elderly  recluse  to 
a  pretty  girl,  but  as  one  cultured  being  to  another  in  a 
converse  where  age  and  sex  were  not  factors  at  all.  She 
looked  up  at  him,  not  as  a  fiery  loyalist  devotee  to  a  revo 
lutionary  free-thinker,  but  as  a  cosmopolitan  of  wide  ex 
perience  with  a  superfluity  of  information  to  impart  to  an 
appreciative  listener. 

At  once,  as  if  by  magic,  some  subtle  comprehension  led 
every  human  being  to  withdraw,  as  speedily  and  unob 
trusively  as  possible,  from  that  sola,  leaving  only  Don 
Gregorio  with  Dona  Juana  in  one  corner  and  Beltran  with 
Dona  Juanita  in  the  other.  With  only  this  chaperonage 
and  obviously  utterly  unconscious  of  it,  Francia  and  Ven 
tura  stood,  immediately  intimate  and  deep  in  an  absorbing 
conversation. 


MOONLIT   SURPRISES  229 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

MOONLIT  SURPRISES 
(1) 

HAWTHORNE,  with  Dr.  Parlett,  making  his  way  out 
among  the  last,  encountered  Don  Basilio  Goyez. 

"Is  he  not  a  great  man?"  Don  Basilio  exclaimed  en 
thusiastically.  ' i  Sometimes  we  forget  how  great  a  man  he 
is.  But  he  puts  us  in  our  place  at  once.  You  saw  him 
put  me  in  my  place  the  other  day.  It  is  an  honour  to  be 
rebuked  in  such  a  fashion  by  so  great  a  man.  One  feels 
ennobled.  It  has  a  tonic  effect  on  one 's  whole  individuality. 
"We  love  him  all  the  better  for  it,  we  Creoles.  And  all  of 
us  love  him  anyhow.  Only  the  Spaniards,  the  Goths,  re 
sent  his  directness.  We  Creoles  applaud,  seeing  that  he  is 
always  in  the  right. " 

Dr.  Parlett  laughed,  which  did  not  seem  to  disturb  Don 
Basilio  a  particle.  Hawthorne  did  not  laugh.  He  was 
beginning  to  perceive  that  not  merely  the  Guaranies  idol 
ised  Francia.  Here  was  a  fresh  confirmation  of  the  fact. 

Beyond  Don  Basilio  he  found  himself  between  Dona 
Pancha  Jovellanos  and  Dona  Encarnacion  Figueredo. 
Looking  around  for  Don  Baltasar  and  Don  Renato,  and 
not  perceiving  either,  he  immediately  offered  to  take  Dona 
Encarnacion  in  to  supper ;  Dr.  Parlett,  fairly  quick  socially 
when  sober,  promptly  made  the  like  offer  to  Dona  Pancha, 
and  the  four  sought  the  supper  room  together. 

Eating  was  no  bar  to  Dona  Encarnacion 's  volubility. 

"Baltasar  told  me  the  other  night,"  she  said,  "that  we 
were  predestined  to  be  good  friends,  and  I  think  so  my 
self. 

"  'Here's  another  Don  Guillenno,'  he  told  me.  'Not 
unlike  your  young  Scotchman,  and  better  looking.  Per 
haps  he  '11  take  you  out  riding,  like  Senor  Robairson.  Blue- 
eyed  men  named  Guillermo  appear  naturally  to  belong  to 
you,  Encarnacion/  So  I  hope  you  and  I  are  to  be  good 
friends,  Don  Guillermo." 

To  which  Hawthorne  most  heartily  assented,  for  he 
purposed  to  enlist  the  sympathies  of  this  tall  blonde  in 
behalf  of  Dona  Cecilia. 


230  EL   SUPREMO 

It  seemed  to  him  that  they  were  a  long  time  at  supper, 
for  his  appetite  was  more  quickly  satisfied  than  those  of 
the  Asuncianas.  When  at  last  they  left  the  table  he  freed 
himself  at  the  first  opportunity  and  wandered  from  room 
to  room  observing  the  doings  of  the  other  guests. 

The  little  boys  interested  him  most.  A  few,  still  in  their 
gaudy  grown-up  fineries,  were  dancing  stately  minuets  or 
ever  statelier  sarabands  with  little  girls  no  older  than* 
themselves,  but  fully  as  dignified.  The  most,  however,  had 
Been  disembarrassed  of  their  cocked  hats,  court  swords, 
canes,  coats  and  waistcoats,  and  were  playing  about  like 
children  of  any  land.  Many  were  already  drowsing,  their 
heads  in  their  nurses'  laps. 

The  dancing  of  the  elders  was  a  delightful  spectacle  to 
Hawthorne.  The  contrast  between  the  parti-coloured  finery 
of  the  men  and  the  universal  simplicity  of  the  white-clad 
women  had  in  it  something  idiosyncratic  and  striking.  The 
participants  were  uniformly  graceful.  There  was  no  awk 
wardness  anywhere,  all  seemed  born  dancers,  and  most  o7 
them  amazingly  well  skilled  besides;  Don  Saturnino  Be- 
doya,  more  like  a  giant  canary  than  ever,  evidently  the  best 
among  the  men.  Of  the  women  every  one  seemed  the  best 
dancer,  but  Hawthorne  took  a  special  pleasure  in  watch 
ing  Angelica  Recalde  with  Desiderio  Mayorga.  They  were 
manifestly  rapt  in  a  halo  of  happiness  which  irradiated 
both.  His  joy  seemed  to  tingle  from  every  finger-tip  of  his 
hands,  perpetually  waving  in  motions  which  were  no  part 
of  the  dance,  yet  harmonised  with  and  enforced  its  rhythm ; 
and  her  bliss  appeared  in  the  quickly  recurrent,  wilfully 
variant  turns  of  her  slim  ankles. 

Hawthorne  smiled  at  the  incongruities  of  St.  John 's  sola, 
where  around  tables  heaped  with  silver  coin  the  fat  friars, 
Dominicans  always  partners  together  against  Franciscans, 
sat  at  their  cards,  while  the  ladies  by  twos  and  threes  re 
turned  again  and  again  to  admire  the  saint,  perhaps  to  light 
a  fresh  taper  in  place  of  one  that  had  burned  short,  always 
to  point  and  say: 

"That  is  my  ring  on  the  little  finger  of  his  left  hand — 
the  turquoise.  I  offered  it  to  Madrina  Juana.  She  didn't 
even  know  I  had  such  a  ring. ' '  Or,  * '  That  is  my  necklace ; 
the  third  one  with  the  rubies.  I  hardly  wanted  to  lend  it 
But  one  can  never  refuse  Comadre  Juana  anything.'' 


MOONLIT    SURPRISES  231 

The  Recoletanos,  Hawthorne  observed,  did  not  play  cards 
and  diverted  themselves  by  conversation  only,  or  by  eating, 
very  moderate  compared  to  the  gorging  of  the  Dominicans 
and  Franciscans.  Prior  Baca,  a  sad-eyed  man,  very  lean 
and  sallow,  asked  Hawthorne  whether  his  countrymen  were 
not  heretics,  and  shook  his  head  lugubriously  over  Haw 
thorne's  reply. 

While  still  in  talk  with  Padre  Procopio,  who  tried  to  im 
part  some  comfort  to  one  originating  in  a  community  of 
heretics,  they  were  joined  by  that  genial  grass-widower, 
Dr.  Bargas.  Whereupon  Padre  Baca  faded  noiselessly 
away  into  the  crowd. 

Dr.   Bargas  puffed  out  his  frilled  shirt-front  and 
served,  beginning  under  his  breath,  swelling  to  trumpet 

' '  All  Asuncianos  are  barbarians,  as  I  have  told  you,  Don 
Guillermo.  This  characterisation,  however,  scarcely  applies 
to  Dona  Juana,  who  was  born  in  Spain.  This  fiesta,  in  fact, 
would  compare  very  favorably  with  the  best  I  ever  saw 
at  Mendoza  and  is  even  worthy  of  comparison  with  the 
exquisite  hospitalities  of  my  good  friend,  the  noble  Marquis 
de  Torretagle  de  Lima." 

He  continued,  in  a  torrent  of  verbiage,  recapitulating 
all  his  stock  praises  of  Mendoza,  his  wife,  his  children, 
his  vineyard,  his  wine  and  his  friends. 

After  escaping  from  Dr.  Bargas,  Hawthorne,  circulating 
at  random  and  observing,  noted  an  almost  universal  ten 
dency  to  circulation,  by  no  means  at  random,  and  speedily 
divined  that  a  full  half  of  the  gentry  of  Asuncion  were 
engaged  in  the  effort  to  pass,  without  attracting  Francia  s 
notice,  one  or  another  of  the  three  doors  of  the  small  sola 
in  which  he  stood,  and  to  cast  furtive  glances  at  him  in 
converse  with  Ventura.  Hawthorne  realised  with  a  sort 
of  shock  that  Ventura  and  the  Dictator  had  stood  talking 
together  while  he  had  watched  Dona  Pancha  eat  her  very 
liberal  fill  of  an  amazing  assortment  of  viands  and  also 
during  Dr.  Bargas'  lengthy  harangue;  yet  neither  scholar 
nor  Senorita  seemed  weary  or  aware  of  being  watched  and 
commented  upon. 

Commented  upon  they  were  and  liberally. 

"Never  talked  that  long  to  any  woman  in  his  life! 

"She's  doing  her  full  share  of  the  talking,  herself 


232  EL   SUPREMO 

4 1  Never  saw  him  smile  that  way,  even  at  Petrona ! '  * 

' '  Acts  as  if  she  were  sixty ! ' ' 

*  *  Acts  as  if  he  were  twenty-six,  you  mean ! ' '  were  among 
the  comments  that  reached  Hawthorne's  ears. 

Beltran  caught  his  eye  and  beckoned  to  him  with  a 
glance. 

His  entry  into  the  small  sola  broke  the  spell. 

' '  Dear  me ! ' '  he  heard  Francia  remark.  ' '  You  must  tell 
me  more  of  this.  This  is  most  interesting.  But  I  have  kept 
you  standing  too  long.  Have  you  had  supper?  Nor  have 
I.  Let  us  go  together. ' ' 

And,  offering  her  his  arm,  he  passed  out  of  the  sola 
and  into  the  supper-room  as  unconsciously  as  if  he  had 
been  any  paysito  of  the  unimportant  herd  convoying  his 
country  sweetheart. 

As  unconsciously  they  supped,  oblivious  to  the  interest 
they  excited,  to  the  remarks  made  on  them,  Ventura,  indeed, 
talking  her  full  share. 

"While  the  two  ate,  the  well-mannered  gentry  kept  the 
tables  just  full  enough  for  them  not  to  feel  isolated,  just 
not  full  enough  for  them  to  feel  intruded  upon.  Haw 
thorne  had  already  admired  the  subtlety  of  deftness  with 
which  the  glancing  at  them  through  the  doors  had  not  been 
overdone ;  this  tacit  league  of  unspoken  general  comprehen 
sion  and  immediate  collective  action  without  the  exchange 
of  a  single  word  impressed  him  even  more  with  the  capacity 
of  the  Paraguayan-Spaniards  for  intrigue  of  all  sorts. 


(2) 

When  Francia  led  Ventura  from  the  supper  room  he 
remarked : 

' '  I  must  see  you  dance  some  of  those  strange  dances  you 
describe." 

In  fact,  as  soon  as  Beltran  could  be  found,  the  Dictator 
stood  aside  with  Dona  Juana  and  watched  the  first  waltz 
ever  danced  in  Asuncion,  for  waltz-music  had  already 
reached  Paraguay,  and  the  band  of  the  Franciscan  Convent 
was  equal  to  several  different  waltz  tunes. 

Don  Manuel's  flame-coloured  velvet  coat  harmonised  with 
his  wife 's  dark  blue  ball-gown ;  Beltran 's  pale  blue  silk  con- 


MOONLIT   SURPRISES  233 

trasted  perfectly  with  Ventura's  yellow  satin.  The  two 
couples  made  an  extremely  graceful  spectacle. 

The  Dictator  was  pleased  and  remarked  to  his  hostess: 

"It  seems  a  charming  innovation.  But  I  marvel  they 
can  appear  so  supple  in  those  confining  stays.  I  have  read 
that  they  are  universal  at  European  courts  and  have  seen 
many  pictures  of  women  so  supported,  but  I  could  not  have 
conjectured  that  they  would  be  so  becoming." 

If  the  Dictator  was  pleased  the  old  ladies  were  not,  nor 
the  young  ladies  either.  Most  of  them  were  terribly 
shocked  and  scandalised.  That  a  man  should  embrace  his 
wife  before  a  company  and  spin  round  to  music  seemed 
indelicate;  that  a  young  gallant  and  a  senorita,  and  they 
not  affianced,  should  clasp  each  other  and  revolve  to  the 
strains  of  a  band  appeared  monstrous  and  horrifying. 

But  some  were  curious.  Paraguayans  of  those  days  were 
all  natural  singers  and  dancers,  quick  to  catch  a  new  tune 
or  a  new  step,  and  a  minority  of  the  young  folks,  by  no 
means  a  small  minority,  were  eager  to  try  the  novelty. 

When  Ventura  paused,  their  excited  arguments  com 
pletely  engrossed  them.  Naturally,  they  could  not  intrude 
upon  Ventura  or  Beltran,  who  stopped  dancing  near  the 
Dictator  and  stood  talking  to  him. 

But  the  entire  faction  fairly  mobbed  Don  Manuel  and 
Dona  Juanita.  Don  Manuel  was  already  intimate  with 
every  one  in  Asuncion.  His  wife  had  so  charming  a  nature 
and  so  graceful  an  exterior  that  everybody  felt  confidential 
with  her  at  first  meeting.  The  two  were  fairly  overwhelmed 
with  questions.  So  totally  did  they  absorb  everybody's 
attention  that  Francia,  Ventura,  Beltran,  Dona  Juana  and 
Hawthorne  passed  almost  unnoticed  into  the  same  small 
sola  where  the  Dictator  had  held  his  impromptu  reception. 

There  he  cross-questioned  Beltran  and  Ventura  concern 
ing  some  places  and  people  they  had  both  seen. 

"And  you  are  going  at  once  to  San  Bernardino?"  he 
asked  Ventura. 

"I  am  in  haste  to  see  my  dear  father,"  Ventura  told  him. 
"I  shall  have  to  sleep  all  day  to-morrow,  of  course,  but  I 
mean  to  set  out  Saturday  morning,  though  Madrina  wants 
me  to  stay  until  Monday." 

"Even  if  you  dp,"  Francia  remarked,  "I  can  hardly 
hope  to  see  you  again.  That  must  be  my  excuse  for  taking 


234  EL   SUPREMO 

up  so  much  of  your  time  from  the  gaieties  you  naturally 
crave.  But  your  fellow-traveller  here  will  be  within  reach. 
I  must  see  you  often,  Don  Beltran.  Come  to  see  me  at 
the  Government  House  on  Saturday,  if  you  can,  or  on 
Monday,  at  latest.  I  must  hear  more  of  your  experiences. ' ' 

He  turned  to  his  hostess. 

"Juana,"  he  said,  "you  have  given  me  the  only  really 
gay  evening  I  have  spent  in  more  than  twenty  years.  You 
have  renewed  my  youth.  I  thank  you,  from  my  heart.  I 
have  enjoyed  myself  completely.  But  I  must  not  enjoy 
myself  overmuch.  I  cannot  remain  until  sunrise,  like  most 
of  the  revellers.  It  is  near  midnight  now  and  time  for 
me  to  be  asleep.  Besides,  I  want  to  finish  my  ride  before 
the  eclipse  begins,  which  will  be  about  one  hour  after  mid 
night.  Altogether  it  is  time  for  me  to  go.  But  I  do  not 
want  to  disturb  your  other  guests.  They  will  think  it  neces 
sary  to  suspend  their  feasting  and  dancing  to  show  me 
honour  at  my  departure.  So  I  will  ask  Don  Beltran  here 
to  notify  Garmendia  to  be  ready  with  his  men  just  beyond 
the  shrubberies  by  the  corner  of  the  potrero.  Then  wher 
he  returns  I  shall  slip  out  quietly  and  ride  away  without, 
interrupting  your  guests '  revelries. ' ' 

"While  Beltran  was  on  his  errand  Francia  kept  Haw 
thorne  and  Dona  Juana  with  him  and  so  conversed  that 
they  had  their  share  in  his  talk  with  Ventura. 

On  Beltran 's  return  he  again  thanked  the  delighted  and 
amazingly  youthful  octogenarian  and  briefly  bade  Ventura 
farewell.  Then  he  asked  Hawthorne,  in  the  most  natural 
tone  imaginable,  to  accompany  him  and  Beltran. 

They  stepped  out  of  the  open,  low-silled  window,  and 
crossed  the  lawn,  apparently  attracting  no  remark.  Fran 
cia,  listening  to  Beltran,  had  slipped  an  arm  through  his. 
Hawthorne  on  the  other  side  of  him  was  walking  a  little 
in  front  of  them. 

The  moonlight,  for  the  moon  was  now  high,  brilliantly 
illuminated  the  open  spaces,  but  there  were  dark  patches 
among  the  shrubberies. 

Out  of  one  of  these,  when  already  they  were  close  to 
the  waiting  lancers,  rushed  a  young  man,  a  iong,  thin  rapier 
in  his  hand. 

He  came  silent  as  a  shadow,  swift  as  a  hawk. 

Straight  at  Francia 's  breast  he  lunged. 


MOONLIT   SURPRISES  235 

''This  for  Narciso!"  he  shrilled. 

His  appearance  was  so  sudden,  so  unexpected,  that 
neither  Francia  nor  Beltran  made  any  movement  to  avoid 
or  ward  off  the  thrust. 

Hawthorne  hurled  himself  on  the  assassin.  His  fist  shot 
out  against  his  jaw. 

At  the  same  instant,  as  his  knuckles  felt  the  impact, 
he  heard  the  grit  of  steel  on  steel;  heard  the  rapier-blade 
snap. 

The  miscreant  went  down  flat  on  the  grass. 

Two  of  the  lancers,  who  had  been  watching  the  Dictator 's 
approach  and  had  seen  the  slim  figure  start  out  of  the 
bushes,  flung  themselves  on  him  before  he  could  rise. 

"Are  you  hurt?"  was  the  simultaneous  exclamation  of 
Francia  and  Hawthorne;  Hawthorne  addressing  the  Dic 
tator,  the  Dictator  addressing  Beltran. 

It  was  Beltran  who  answered. 

"I  think  not;  the  point  caught  in  my  sword-guard,  I 
fancy." 

He  shook  himself,  felt  himself,  and  reported: 

"Not  a  scratch." 

He  picked  up  the  two  pieces  of  the  snapped  sword. 

Francia  turned  to  Hawthorne. 

"That  makes  twice,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said  crisply. 

At  this  juncture  Bopi  came  softly  out  of  the  shadows, 
knelt  down,  and  fastened  on  Francia 's  spurs.  As  softly 
he  vanished  mulewards. 

The  foiled  avenger,  when  lifted  from  the  grass,  was 
manifestly,  even  in  the  moonlight,  a  close  relative  of  the 
handsome  guitarist  and  of  his  executed  brother. 

"Lopezes  uninvited!"  was  Francia 's  first  comment.  He 
added : 

"Not  your  fault,  Don  Beltran,  nor  yet  your  grand 
mother's,  I  know.  She  cannot  picket  her  grounds  and  could 
not  spoil  her  fiesta  with  precautions  for  my  safety,  even 
if  any  of  us  had  foreseen  what  we  never  so  much  as 
dreamed  of." 

Then  he  stood  a  moment  and  sighed. 

"It  is  a  pity  to  shoot  all  of  so  handsome  a  family.  Pre- 
ciado  got  himself  shot  three  years  ago;  Narciso  last  Tues 
day,  and  now  Agustin  on  Friday.  Tie  him  up,  Fulano,  and 
let  Ramon  and  Pablo  take  him  to  the  cavalry  dungeons. 


236  EL   SUPREMO 

Put  him  in  the  second  cell.  Remind  me  to  have  him  shot 
in  the  morning." 

To  Beltran  and  Hawthorne  he  said  gravely: 

"Nobody  except  ourselves  must  know  of  this.  Fulano,  of 
course,  will  hold  his  tongue.  So  will  the  men.  It  lies 
between  us  three.  Give  no  hint  of  it  to  any  one,  even  when 
you  hear  people  vilify  me  for  having  a  harmless  and  inno 
cent  idler  shot  out  of  mere  cruelty  and  love  of  despotic 
power. ' ' 

He  bade  Beltran  farewell,  with  many  compliments  on 
the  fiesta  and  on  his  exploits;  bade  Hawthorne  farewell, 
thanking  him  again;  glanced  at  the  soldiers  busy  with 
their  prisoner,  gazed  leisurely  about  him,  stared  up  at  the 
moon  and  then  mounted  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 

Beltran,  with  Hawthorne,  watched  him  ride  off  in  the 
moonlight,  his  horse  at  a  walk,  four  lancers  in  front  of 
him,  four  behind.  At  the  road  they  broke  into  a  smart 
canter. 

Meanwhile  Captain  Garmendia  superintended  his  men 
pinioning  the  assassin  and  lashing  him  on  a  horse,  which 
one  of  them  brought  from  the  stable.  They  also  dimin 
ished  under  the  nioonrays,  the  Captain  spurring  to  catch 
up  with  the  Dictator,  the  four  lancers,  two  on  either  side 
of  their  prisoner,  who  had  uttered  no  word  after  his  vain 
threat,  riding  slowly.  After  they  were  out  of  sight  Beltran 
and  Hawthorne  returned  to  the  house. 


(3) 

Inside  they  found  all  who  could  crowd  into  the  larger 
sola  intent  upon  the  subject  of  waltzing.  One  Paraguayan 
had  caught  the  waltz  step  already,  for  Don  Saturnino 
Bedoya,  that  gigantic  canary,  was  waltzing,  and  waltzing 
perfectly,  even  exquisitely,  with  Ventura,  who  was  mani 
festly  enjoying  herself  and  plainly  proud  of  her  apt  pupil. 
Her  figure,  tall  and  full-blooded  as  she  was,  looked  very 
small  beside  his  almost  seven  feet  of  height.  The  four 
shades  of  yellow  of  her  gown  and  his  costume  made  a 
singularly  agreeable  harmony. 

When  the  air  came  to  an  end  some  one  in  the  throng  of 
onlookers  called  out: 


MOONLIT   SURPRISES  237 

"To  teach  the  waltz  no  pretty  girl  need  waste 
Much  time  on  any  man  of  sense  and  taste. 
Her  drill,  unlike  his  arm,  won't  go  to  waist." 

A  burst  of  laughter  and  applause  greeted  this  sally. 
The  moment  the  noise  died  away  another  voice  capped 
the  first  with: 

"It's  plain  the  moment  that  you  see  them  twirl 
Why  any  lass  could  teach  a  man  this  whirl; 
I  wonder  if  a  man  could  teach  a  girl?" 

Beltran,  so  urged,  gave  but  one  glance  about  him  and  at 
once  advanced  to  Angelica  Recalde.  To  Hawthorne's 
amazement  she  caught  the  step  almost  immediately. 

This  greatly  pleased  everybody,  even  the  censorious  old 
leatas,  Desiderio  Mayorga  alone  excepted.  He  glowered 
from  a  corner,  his  eyes  less  on  the  feet  of  the  dancers  than 
on  the  softness  of  Angelica's  corsetless  waist  against  Bel 
tran 's  encircling  arm. 

The  least  fascinated  of  the  onlookers  was  Hawthorne, 
who  alone  had  seen  waltzing  before.  He  slipped  out  into 
the  moonlight  and  stood  gazing  at  the  dancing  peasantry. 
Their  gaiety,  by  mere  contrast,  led  him  to  think  of  Cecilia, 
asleep,  or  perhaps  unable  to  sleep,  in  her  hut  in  the  prison 
courtyard.  He  stood  staring  up  at  the  moon  that  shone 
not  only  on  this  happy  revelry,  but  also  on  her  wretch 
edness.  -  7 

When  he  returned  to  the  house  he  entered  the  small  sola 
and  there  encountered  Don  Gumesindo  Estagarribia, 
greatly  agitated.  He  puffed  out  a  bosom  almost  as  befrilled 
as  Dr.  Bargas'  and  a  great  deal  fatter,  popped  his  eyes, 
puffed  and  uttered :  . 

"Most  unaccountable,  or,  in  other  words,  mexplica  le, 
that  is  to  say,  puzzling.    I  am  unable,  or  to  make  myself 
clear,  I  cannot  find,  or,  to  put  it  shortly,  discover   or  in  a 
word,  come  upon  our  master,  or  to  express  myself  better 
our  ruler,  that  is  to  say,  our  Dictator.    He  is  gone ;  nishort, 
not  to  be  found,  or  to  sum  up,  he  has  vanished, 
most  perplexing,  or  I  might  say,  terrifying,  even,  to  c 
vey  my  idea  to  you,  confusing." 

Hawthorne,  marvelling  that  any  man  could  use  so  many 
long  words  where  a  few  short  words  would  do  better,  told 


238  EL    SUPREMO 

him  of  the  manner  of  Francia's  departure  and  of  the  rea 
sons  he  had  given  for  slipping  off. 

"That  is  like  his  considerateness  or,  to  express  it  in 
other  words,  consonant  with  his  kind-heartedness,  or  to 
make  myself  clearer,  in  accord  with  his  benevolence,  that 
is  to  say,  concordant  with  his  benignity. J ' 

Hawthorne  felt  his  head,  a  very  steady  head,  fairly  swim 
at  this  cascade  of  verbosity. 

Don  Gumesindo,  taking  a  deep  breath,  launched  into  a 
prolix  discourse  the  purport  of  which  was  entirely  incom 
prehensible  to  Hawthorne,  who  was  unable,  in  fact,  to  pay 
any  heed  to  the  meaning  of  the  sentences,  so  absorbed  was 
he  in  noting  their  peculiarity.  For  Estagarribia's  rhetori 
cal  idiosyncrasies  amounted  to  a  disease,  from  which,  ap 
parently,  he  suffered  more  severely,  the  simpler  the  idea 
to  be  expressed.  He  never  seemed  satisfied  with  enunciating 
a  conception  once,  but  appeared  to  think  it  necessary  to 
repeat  each  idea  under  as  many  different  forms  of  expres 
sion  as  he  could  think  up. 

"I  am  enraptured  at  meeting  you,  Senor  Don  Guiller- 
mo, ' '  he  went  on,  ' '  that  is  to  say,  I  am  ecstaticised ;  or,  in 
other  words,  transported,  to  put  it  more  clearly,  enchanted, 
or,  so  to  say,  beatified ;  if  you  take  my  meaning,  overjoyed, 
or,  to  put  it  briefly,  pleased ;  that  is  to  say,  glad ! ' ' 

Hawthorne  felt  dazed,  felt  a  numbness  creeping  over 
him,  like  the  helplessness  of  a  bird  before  a  snake. 

Don  Gumesindo  beamed  down  at  him  as  if  he  had  enun 
ciated  some  vast  and  newly  discovered  truth  or  formulated 
for  the  first  time  the  explanation  of  a  baffling  problem. 

He  continued: 

"I  feel  this  ravishment,  this  beatitude,  this  felicity,  if 
you  understand  me,  Senor  Don  Guillermo ;  this  delight,  to 
express  the  idea  succinctly;  this  delectation,  to  be  more 
lucid;  this  gratification,  in  short,  this  enjoyment,  this 
pleasure,  if  I  make  myself  intelligible;  this  satisfaction; 
because,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  such  a  fortunate  encounter 
between  a  native  of  our  glorious  continent  and  a  native  of 
your  illustrious  continent  gives  me  the  opportunity  to 
compare,  that  is  to  say,  to  institute  a  comparison  between, 
or  in  other  words  to  contrast,  or  to  so  express  it,  to  collate, 
the  contrasting,  or  differing  characters  produced  by  the 
land  of  pampas  and  the  land  of  prairies. 


MOONLIT    SURPRISES  239 

"Your  nature,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo,  is  northern;  that 
is  to  say,  Boreal;  or,  in  other  words,  arctic;  or  to  put  it 
shortly,  septentrional,  while  ours,  Serior  Don  Guillermo,  is 
southern,  or  to  make  myself  clear,  antarctic,  to  come  nearer 
the  idea,  Austral,  or,  to  put  it  into  one  word,  adjacent  to 
the  southern  cross.  This,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  is  the 
essence,  the  essentialness,  the  intrinsicality  of  the  difference, 
by  which  I  mean  the  dissimilarity,  or,  more  exactly,  the 
unlikeness,  that  is  to  say,  the  contrast  between  our  respec 
tive  dispositions. 

"Do  I  make  myself  clear,  or,  in  short,  lucid,  Seiior  Don 
Guillermo?" 

"Perfectly!"  Hawthorne  exclaimed,  and  endeavoured  to 
escape. 

In  vain. 

For  Don  Gumesindo,  at  intolerable  length,  it  is  true,  and 
•by  many  circumlocutions,  proceeded  to  make  himself  en 
tirely  clear  on  one  matter,  namely,  that  he  regarded  Haw 
thorne  as  the  Dictator's  prime  favourite  for  the  time  being 
and  thought  him  precisely  the  right  person  to  prefer  a 
small  request  which  he,  Don  Gumesindo,  had  found  no  op 
portunity  to  lay  before  the  supreme  head  of  the  govern 
ment. 

Before  Estagarribia  had  driven  home  to  his  own  satis 
faction  the  point  of  this  request,  he  gradually  dropped  his 
voice  almost  to  a  whisper  and  his  victim  became  aware 
that  they  were  talking  in  a  room  which  was  rapidly  fill 
ing  up. 

This  was  the  beginning  for  Hawthorne  of  an  amazing 
experience.  Standing  where  Francia  had  stood,  he  found 
himself  the  focus  of  a  homage  almost  as  universal  and  held, 
without  expecting  it,  a  reception  nearly  as  inclusive.  No 
sooner  had  the  company  learned  that  Francia  had  de 
parted  than  all  the  gentlemen  and  most  of  the  ladies 
crowded  in  to  make  Hawthorne 's  acquaintance ;  or,  if  they 
had  already  met  him,  to  make  some  complimentary  remark. 
Except  the  members  of  the  Mayorga  household,  every  man 
present  had  some  request  to  prefer,  had  some  matter  to 
present  which  he  wished  the  newcomer  to  bring  to  the  Dic 
tator's  attention.  The  ladies,  born  intriguers  all,  were  not 
behind  their  men-folk  in  self-seeking.  Hawthorne  was  im 
pressed  with  the  subtlety  with  which  most  of  them,  men 


240  EL   SUPREMO 

and  women  alike,  put  forth  their  suggestions.  Also,  he 
was  more  than  a  little  disgusted  at  the  time-serving  mob. 
Only  General  Cabanas,  Don  Prudencio  la  Guardia,  and 
the  two  Casals  had  no  request  to  make,  no  petition  to  fur 
ther.  Even  Don  Cipriano  Domeque  had  interests  at  the 
Government  House  which  he  thought  Hawthorne  might 
further. 

Release  came  to  Hawthorne  when  some  one  passed  word 
about  that  the  moon  was  in  process  of  being  eclipsed.  To 
view  this  portent,  all  flocked  out  of  doors,  Hawthorne  with 
them.  When  satisfied  with  gazing,  commenting  and  re 
marking  on  the  infallibility  of  Carai  Franeia's  predictions, 
most  of  the  company  again  flocked  indoors,  Hawthorne 
found  himself  free  to  roam  about  and  observe  the  slacken 
ing  festivities.  Except  that  all  the  children  were  now 
asleep  and  some  of  their  elders,  the  slackening  was  observ 
able  only  to  a  keen  eye.  Out  of  doors  the  peasantry  danced 
with  abandon  and  ate  with  insatiable  appetite.  Indoors, 
St.  John  leered  from  his  crystal  case,  the  friars  shuffled 
and  played  their  cards  and  pushed  the  heaps  of  silver  coins 
across  the  green  baize  tables.  In  the  largest  sola,  waltzing 
had  found  many  converts,  Don  Gil  Romero  and  Don  Ar- 
turo  Balagrier  among  them;  each,  Hawthorne  observed, 
waltzing  with  his  own  wife.  Ventura  was  again  partner 
with  Don  Saturnino  Bedoya,  who  was  plainly  head  over 
ears  in  love  with  her.  Beltran  was  dancing  with  Dona 
Melchora  Echagiie,  while  Desiderio  Mayorga,  entirely 
happy,  was  waltzing  with  Angelica  Recalde. 

In  the  smaller  sola  the  national  dance,  the  sarandig,  the 
figures  of  which  carried  the  performer's  feet  some  distance 
from  the  floor,  was  being  danced  with  much  enthusiasm 
and  vigour.  To  Hawthorne's  amazement  his  aged  hostess 
was  exhibiting  her  skill  and  displaying  an  agility,  grace 
and  stamina  downright  superhuman. 

At  length,  the  daylight  overcame  the  radiance  of  the  dis 
appearing  moon.  The  peasantry  began  to  disperse,  their 
guitars  twanging  faintly  and  farther  off  as  they  trooped 
away.  The  friars  tore  themselves  away  from  their  cards, 
the  Dominicans  with  all  the  silver,  the  Franciscans  impov 
erished  to  the  last  maravedi,  each  order  looking  daggers  at 
the  other.  The  dancing  ceased.  The  nurses  began  gather 
ing  up  the  children  and  Dr.  Bargas  shook,  and  shook  in 


THE   INSTALMENT  241 

vain,  good  old  Tom  Parlett  of  Bristol,  dead  drunk  in  a 
corner  of  the  dining  hall.  The  mothers  looked  after  their 
daughters,  all  a  bit  wan  in  the  dawn  light,  the  wives  waked 
up  their  husbands,  the  gentlemen  roused  their  servants  and 
urged  them  towards  the  potrero.  By  sunrise  most  of  the 
cattle  were  yoked  and  all  the  horses  saddled.  Coffee  and 
chocolate  were  handed  about,  as  well  as  mate  without  limit, 
the  servants  bustled,  the  vehicles  moved  off,  troops  of  cav 
aliers  galloped  hallooing  to  every  point  of  the  compass; 
the  friars  took  the  road  in  a  long  procession,  the  bands 
jogged  off,  the  caravans  of  ladies  and  children  creaked 
away. 

Hawthorne  and  Carmelo,  whom  he  had  seen  but  once 
all  night,  cantered  up  to  the  Mayorga  mansion  after  eight 
o  'clock  of  the  day.  Ten  minutes  after  he  dismounted,  Haw 
thorne  was  fast  asleep. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

THE  INSTALMENT 
(1) 

WHEN  he  awoke,  the  day  was  already  far  along  toward 
evening.  No  sooner  was  he  astir  than  a  knock 
sounded  on  the  door.  At  his  response  his  host  entered  and 
told  him  that  a  message  had  come  for  him.  The  worthy 
don  was  agog  over  its  wording.  The  messenger  had  not 
said :  . 

"El  Supremo  orders  Don  Guillermo  Atorno  to  come  and 
see  him";  but, 

' '  The  Dictator  begs  that  Don  Guillermo  Atorno  come  to 
the  Government  House  at  his  leisure  and  convenience." 

The  messenger  had  even  been  charged  most  strictly  that 
Bon  Guillermo  must  not  be  wakened  or  disturbed. 

"You  are  indeed  high  in  favour,"  Don  Vicente  declared, 
using  that  phrase  for  the  twentieth  time,  at  least.  "You 
are  invited  to  sup  with  the  Dictator  or  not,  as  you  please, 
and  the  messenger  is  waiting,  as  he  was  bidden." 

"I  am  not  a  bit  hungry,"  Hawthorne  replied.    "Pigeon 


242  EL   SUPREMO 

and  wine  will  be  enough  supper  for  me.  I  feel  as  if  I  had 
but  just  swallowed  the  last  of  my  share  of  Dona  Juana's 
good  cheer." 

At  the  Government  House  his  experiences  were  at  first 
a  repetition  of  those  of  the  preceding  Tuesday  evening. 
Bopi  squatting  by  the  sentry,  the  flowered  calico  dressing 
gown,  the  delayed  supper,  the  invitation  into  the  study, 
were  all  similar. 

But  the  moment  they  were  in  the  study  Francia  motioned 
Hawthorne  to  a  chair,  pulled  another  close  to  him,  and  took 
his  seat  on  it. 

"You  will  eat  with  more  relish,"  he  said,  "after  we  have 
talked  a  bit.  You  are  aware,  Don  Guillermo,  that  you  have 
twice  saved  my  life.  All  Paraguay,  without  suspecting 
the  fact,  is  doubly  indebted  to  you.  Part  of  that  debt  or 
at  least  an  instalment  on  it,  I  must  endeavour  to  pay. 

"I  am  called  a  tyrant.  I  forget  what  witty  French 
writer  defined  a  tyrant  as  a  ruler  who  endeavours  to  make 
his  people  happy  by  giving  them  what  he  considers  good 
for  them,  instead  of  what  they  want,  and  then  wonders  why 
they  are  not  pleased. 

"I  shall  not  act  like  a  tyrant  towards  you,  Don  Guil 
lermo.  In  so  far  as  I  can,  I  shall  fulfil  your  wishes.  You 
are,  I  perceived  the  other  day,  deeply  interested  in  my 
most  interesting  prisoner. 

' '  I  tried  to  make  it  plain  to  you,  I  repeat  now  most  sol 
emnly,  that  I  cannot  so  much  as  consider  releasing  that 
unfortunate  lady.  It  is  my  duty  to  Paraguay  to  detain 
her.  Her  freedom  I  cannot  accord  you.  But  if  there  is 
anything  short  of  release  which  you  desire  done  for  her, 
which  you  can  think  of,  it  shall  be  freely  permitted.  Think 
the  matter  over  during  our  supper,  formulate  your  re 
quests,  and  state  them  to  me  before  we  part  to-night." 

At  that  moment  Bopi  announced  supper. 

As  they  stood  up,  Francia  asked  suddenly: 

"Were  you  thinking  of  me  when  you  saved  my  life,  or 
did  you  act  before  you  thought,  like  a  man  slapping  a 
mosquito  ? ' ' 

Hawthorne  laughed,  and  then  fell  serious. 

"I  did  not  think  at  all,"  he  confessed.  "I  saw  a  fellow- 
creature  in  peril,  and,  each  time,  my  New  England  instincts 
acted  before  I  myself  realised  what  I  was  doing." 


THE   INSTALMENT  243 

"Your  New  England  instincts/'  Francia  snorted,  "also 
prompt  you  to  tell  the  truth ! ' ' 

When  they  were  seated  at  table,  Franeia  proposed : 

"Let  us  talk  in  French.  I  am  vain  of  my  command  of 
French  and  seldom  have  any  one  with  whom  I  can  keep 
myself  in  practice. ' ' 

In  the  French  therefore  they  conversed,  the  Dictator 
compellingly  and  charmingly  keeping  Hawthorne  busy  by 
a  series  of  questions  about  North  America;  its  products, 
agriculture  and  trade;  its  public  men,  education,  profi 
ciency  in  mechanical  arts,  mathematical  training;  so  lead 
ing  to  talk  about  eclipses  and  other  non-contentious  topics. 

When  the  simple  meal  was  finished,  the  table  cleared 
and  their  cigars  drawing,  Francia  with  one  of  his  sudden 
turns  spoke  in  Spanish  and  came  to  the  point: 

"Wednesday  afternoon  you  had  saved  my  life  but  once; 
now  you  have  saved  me  twice.  I  feel  that  we  are  bound  to 
each  other,  not  only  I  to  you  by  having  been  saved,  but  you 
to  me  by  having  saved  me.  Certainly  I  am,  in  many  senses, 
bound  to  you.  I  shall  not  again  give  way  to  suspicion  to 
wards  you,  Be  sure  of  that. 

"Now  I  ask  you,  not  as  I  asked  you  for  your  probably 
ready  suggestions,  day  before  yesterday,  but  in  quite  a 
different  spirit,  to  state  to  me  frankly  your  real  opinion  of 
my  prisons.  I  ask  it  as  a  favour/' 

Hawthorne  puffed  his  cigar. 

"In  Buenos  Aires,"  he  said,  "I  heard  dark  rumours  of 
the  horrors  of  your  prisons.  People  spoke  of  them  almost 
in  whispers.  They  repeated  absurd  legends  of  dungeons 
belonging  to  the  Inquisition,  to  the  Jesuits,  ingeniously 
and  fiendishly  devised.  Similar  bogey  tales  were  told  me 
at  Santa  Fe  and  Corrientes. 

1 '  I  find  no  basis  for  such  inventions.  Your  public  prison 
is  less  crowded  and  less  filthy  than  the  prison  at  Buenos 
Aires.  It  is  similar  to  others  I  have  seen  in  South  Amer 
ica.  At  Pamplona  I  saw  smaller  cells  far  more  crowded. 
At  Cartagena  the  conditions  were  still  worse. 

"As  for  the  dungeons,  yours  have  in  each  set  a  window 
at  the  end  of  the  corridor.  In  Cartagena  the  dungeons  were 
dungeons  indeed,  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  without  aper 
ture  of  any  kind.  Not  one  of  your  dungeon  cells  is  under 
six  feet  square.  At  Pamplona  a  turnkey  opened  a  cell 


244  EL   SUPREMO 

before  me.  It  was  six  feet  high,  four  feet  wide  and  two 
feet  deep.  The  prisoner  had  been  in  it  two  months,  dur 
ing  which  time  the  door  had  been  opened  but  once  daily 
and  then  only  to  put  in  a  jug  of  water  and  some  food.  Yet 
the  man  was  alive. 

i '  I  find  no  such  conditions  in  Asuncion.  Compared  with. 
South  American  prisons  in  general,  yours  are  above  the 
average. ' ' 

"Very  discreetly  expressed,"  Francia  commented,  "and 
very  gratifying  to  me  to  hear.  Yet  all  that  sounds  to  me 
like  a  mere  prelude  to  a  positive  censure.  You  have  more 
to  say ;  speak  it  out. ' ' 

Thus  encouraged,  Hawthorne  launched  freely  into  a 
discourse  on  prisons  in  general,  winding  up  with  an  appli 
cation  to  the  prisons  of  Asuncion  in  particular. 

Francia  threw  away  what  was  left  of  his  cigar,  lit  an 
other,  and  insisted  on  his  guest  doing  likewise. 

"It  is  clarifying  to  the  mind,"  he  said,  "to  listen  to 
you,  if  only  that  it  forces  one  to  formulate  to  oneself  just 
why  one  disagrees  with  you. 

"Now  you  talk  as  if  the  object  of  the  existence  of  prisons 
were  the  safety,  health  and  comfort  of  the  prisoners.  It  is 
no  such  thing.  The  chief,  I  might  almost  say  the  only, 
object  of  a  prison's  existence  is  to  make  sure  that  the  pris 
oners  do  not  get  away.  Keep  that  in  mind." 

"I  do  keep  it  in  mind,"  Hawthorne  said.  "But  after 
that  has  been  provided  for  there  is  no  reason  why  offenders, 
whose  guilt  is  adjudicated  as  not  meriting  execution,  should 
suffer  a  death  far  worse  than  hanging  or  shooting  after 
prolonged  torments  from  unnecessary  mismanagement.  A 
delinquent  Judged  worthy  of  confinement  only,  should  only 
be  confined;  should  be  freed  at  the  end  of  his  term  of  im 
prisonment  no  worse  off  in  health  than  when  cast  into 
prison.  Criminals  dangerous  to  the  community  should  be 
ruthlessly  abolished.  Those  whose  sentence  is  in  the  na 
ture  of  deterrent  correction  or  warning,  and  who  are  to 
be  released  and  again  become  part  of  the  community,  should 
not  be  disabled  or  made  invalids ;  that  is  merely  depriving 
the  public  of  their  future  services  and  burdening  their  ac 
quaintances  with  the  care  of  them.  Their  value  to  the 
nation  should  not  be  impaired  by  confinement.  Detention 
in  this  climate  is  punishment  enough  and  should  not  be 


THE   INSTALMENT  245 

aggravated  by  preventable  miseries.  Mere  prisoners  should 
really  be  lept  as  healthy  and  comfortable  as  is  possible 
under  local  conditions/' 

Francia  scowled,  sighed  and  smiled. 

"You  are  a  very  eloquent  young  man,''  he  said,  "and 
your  command  of  Spanish  is  astonishing  when  you  are 
roused.  You  carry  one  with  you  against  his  will,  even 
when  you  go  wrong.  But  you  never  go  entirely  wrong,  and 
sometimes  you  touch  the  core  of  the  matter  you  discuss.; 
Your  last  few  words  are  very  much  to  the  point.  The 
kind  of  prisons  you  dream  of  may  come  into  being  on 
earth  at  some  future  time :  I  cannot  credit  that  such  ever 
yet  existed.  The  sort  of  prisons  you  tell  of  may  exist  in 
Europe  or  America.  You  yourself  confess  that  there  are 
•worse  on  this  continent.  The  ideal  prisons  you  bid  me 
aim  at  may  yet  come  into  being  in  Paraguay,  but  not  this 
year,  hardly  in  this  century. 

"Our  prisons  are  conditioned  not  only  by  the  climate, 
building-methods  in  vogue,  as  well  as  the  food  products  and 
clothing-supplies  available,  not  merely  by  the  structure  of 
our  polity  and  personalities  of  our  police,  constable  and 
jailers:  they  are  still  more  conditioned  by  the  natures  of 
our  prisoners.  Your  ideal  prisons  are  here  and  now  im 
possible. 

"Come,  I  am  not  a  particle  incensed  with  you.  But  let 
us  abandon  fruitless  talk  of  generalities  and  theories.  Let 
us  particularise  only.  Consider  that  I  grant  your  airiest 
assumptions  and  admit  the  justice  of  your  arguments ;  on 
that  basis  let  us  be  severely  practical.  What  specific  rec 
ommendations  have  you  to  make  for  those  improvements  in 
the  healthfulness  of  my  prisoners  and  economy  of  my  prison 
administration,  for  I  think  you  dwelt  on  economy  in  your 
theorising  ?  State  your  suggestions.  I  shall  listen. ' ' 

"In  the  first  place,"  Hawthorne  said,  "you  can  apply 
one  generalisation  towards  both  health  and  economy  ^  by 
merely  making  as  universal  and  continuous  as  possible 
what  *is  done  capriciously  and  intermittently.  I  was  told 
that  some  of  the  prisoners  were  sometimes  taken  from  the 
prison  under  guard  to  work  outside.  Every  man  capable 
of  work  should  be  at  work  outside  every  morning  and  after 
noon,  weather  permitting.  Every  woman  should  be  made 
to  work  every  day,  all  day  except  at  the  siesta  hour." 


246  EL   SUPREMO 

"How?"  Francia  queried,  startled. 

"At  spinning  or  weaving,"  Hawthorne  replied.  "Spin 
ning-wheels  and  looms  could  be  installed  cheaply,  cotton 
supplied.  The  products  would  soon  pay  for  the  cost  of 
looms  and  all  and  thenceforth  would  yield  a  profit.  Gomez 
could  be  trusted  to  audit  the  amount  of  cotton  brought  in 
and  cloth  produced  and  to  see  that  the  wheels  and  looms 
are  not  harmed.  He  could  also  be  left  to  choose  one  woman 
to  direct  the  others  and  two  to  assist  her.  The  work  would 
keep  them  all  healthy  and  as  nearly  contented  as  prisoners 
can  be." 

"A  good  idea!"  Francia  cried.  "I'll  try  it.  Cloth  is 
always  scarce  here  and  extremely  costly.  Moreover,  the 
experiment  will  cost  less  than  you  forecast.  Spinning- 
wheels  in  Paraguay  are  used  only  by  the  wealthiest  ladies 
who  have  some  education.  All  other  women  use  mere  spin 
dles." 

He  lit  a  fresh  cigar. 

"How,"  he  enquired,  "do  you  propose  to  occupy  the 
men?" 

' '  I  was  told  they  worked  at  wood-sawing  and  at  loading 
and  unloading  cargoes,"  Hawthorne  said.  "Those  are  fit 
tasks  for  criminals  and  prisoners.  But  vessels  do  not  every 
day  require  loading  and  unloading  at  Asuncion.  Nor  is 
the  demand  for  planks  great  or  continuous. 

' '  But  putting  streets  in  order  and  paving  is  the  best  pos 
sible  work  for  prisoners.  It  is  not  ruinous  to  their  health, 
yet  is  disagreeable  enough  to  be  punitive,  and  the  need  for 
street  betterment  is  everywhere  in  Asuncion.  You  could 
pave  Calle  Comercio  to  begin  with,  and  continue  at  your 
fancy." 

'  *  That  I  '11  try  also, ' '  Francia  agreed,  rubbing  his  hands. 
"Any  other  suggestion?" 

' '  Some  delinquents, ' '  Hawthorne  enunciated  slowly, ' '  are 
better  chastised  by  fine  than  confinement." 

"Orpheus  speaks,  I  conjecture,"  Francia  said.  "The 
utterance  is  vague  and  indefinite." 

"When  you  imprison  a  man,"  Hawthorne  queried,  "ia 
it  an  act  of  revenge  on  him,  or  to  vindicate  the  majesty  of 
the  law,  restrain  him  and  others  like  him  from  repeating 
the  offence,  and  protect  the  nation  from  the  consequences 
of  acts  and  words  that  should  be  repressed?" 


THE   INSTALMENT  247 

Francia  fidgeted. 

"I  fear,"  lie  said,  "I  have  permitted  you  too  much  li 
cense  toward  myself.  I  find  I  am  restive  under  your  cate 
chising.  However,  I  shall  not  go  back  on  my  given  word. 
I  reply,  like  a  school-boy  at  fault.  I  am  often  revengeful 
in  the  heat  of  indignation,  and  afterwards  regret  it.  I 
despise  revengefulness  when  I  am  cool.  As  policy,  it  is 
despicable,  as  weakness  contemptible.  Punishment  should 
aim  at  the  ends  you  have  recited,  at  no  others. ' ' 

"Then,"  Hawthorne  spoke  boldly,  "the  interests  of 
Paraguay  would  be  better  served  by  releasing  after  pay 
ment  of  a  large  fine,  than  by  further  detaining  Don  Cris 
tobal  de  Maria." 

Francia  stood  up,  livid  and  snorting. 

Hawthorne's  eyes  never  left  his. 

He  sat  down  again  and  took  a  huge  pinch  of  snuff. 

"A  fine,"  Hawthorns  said,  "large  enough  to  make  him 
smart,  but  not  large  enough  to  impoverish  him,  would  be 
a  sufficiently  severe  punishment  to  any  loose-mouthed  old 
Spaniard  and  would  be  an  effectual  deterrent  to  any  other 
similarly  minded." 

Francia  took  another  pinch  of  snuff. 

"I  find,"  he  said,  "to  my  surprise,  that  I  positively  en 
joy  opposition  from  you.  It  is  a  refreshing  novelty.  In 
plain  words,  you  beg  for  the  release  of  Don  Cristobal. 

* '  Did  you  talk  to  him  ?  Yes  ?  How  much  of  a  fine  could 
his  estate  stand  ? ' ? 

"You  ought  to  know  that  better  than  I,"  Hawthorne 
replied. 

"  I  'd  wager  he  told  you, ' '  Francia  declared.  ' '  And  I  am 
disposed  to  indulge  you  to  the  utmost.  I  shall  let  him  off 
at  his  own  offer,  which  is  doubtless  one-half  what  he  could 
afford." 

"Two  thousand  pesos,"  Hawthorne  said,  "was  what  he 
mentioned." 

"Show  me,"  Francia  said,  "Olegario's  receipt  for  two 
thousand  piastres  paid  into  the  treasury,  and  111  give  you 
an  order  authorising  his  wife  to  go  to  the  prison  and  have 
his  fetters  filed  off  a&d  take  him  home  with  her." 

Hawthorne  expressed  his  thanks  at  some  length. 

' '  You  talk  much  of  economy, ' '  Francia  interrupted  him, 
"but  of  some  things  you  are  anything  but  economical:  of 


248  EL    SUPREMO 

thanks,  for  instance.  And  you  are  positively  wasteful  of 
arguments.  Why  argue  with  me  about  Don  Cristobal 's  case 
when  I  would  have  released  him  as  a  favour  to  you  without 
discussion  ? ' ' 

Hawthorne,  as  usual,  met  Francia's  eyes  full. 

"If  my  presentation  of  the  case  did  not  convince  you/' 
he  said,  "of  the  advisability  of  commuting  the  residue  of 
Don  Cristobal 's  allotted  period  of  detention  for  a  cash  fine, 
he  ought  not  to  be  released.  No  man  ought  to  be  released 
as  a  favour  to  another." 

Francia  sighed. 

"My  views  exactly,"  he  said.  "You  must  pardon  me  if 
I  have  lost  sight  of  my  own  principles  in  the  atmosphere 
which  has  produced,  say,  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda.  In 
some  moods  one  comes  to  feel  that  favouritism  rules  all 
mankind,  even  oneself. 

"It  does,  to  a  degree. 

' '  It  was  favouritism  to  listen  to  your  pleadings.  I  should 
have  so  favoured  no  other  human  being.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  the  facts  been  otherwise,  or  had  you  presented 
them  less  tellingly,  I  should  have  refused  even  you." 

He  smiled  again,  slyly. 

"Have  you  any  arguments,"  he  asked,  "for  the  release 
of  Ramon  Perez?" 

"Not  one,"  said  Hawthorne.  "He  and  Asuncion  are 
alike  better  off  while  he  is  in  duress. ' ' 

"Am  I  to  hear  any  pleadings  in  behalf  of  my  precious 
nephews?"  Francia  queried. 

"None,"  said  Hawthorne. 

"Why  not?"  Francia  shot  at  him. 

"I  thought  they  both  lied,"  Hawthorne  answered 
Bteadily. 

"Neither  could  help  lying  if  he  tried  to  tell  the  truth," 
Francia  chuckled.  "Neither  is  capable  of  trying  to  tell 
the  truth.  You  read  them! 

"What  opinion  did  you  form  about  the  other  occupants 
of  the  dungeons?"  he  queried. 

"I  formed  no  opinion  about  them  or  any  one  of  them," 
Hawthorne  replied.  "I  contented  myself  with  the  general 
inference  that  they  were  politically  dangerous,  too  dan 
gerous  to  be  at  large,  but  not  guilty  of  any  specific  act 
that  would  justify  execution." 


THE   INSTALMENT  249 

"You  have  put  the  facts  precisely/'  said  the  Dictator, 
taking  a  big  pinch  of  snuff,  and  another  bigger. 

Hawthorne  already  knew  Francia 's  habits,  and  recog 
nised  symptoms  of  satisfaction.  He  saw  an  opportunity, 
and  improved  it. 

"I  was  puzzled,"  he  said,  "as  to  why  Padre  Taboada 
was  not  in  the  dungeons  rather  than  in  the  public  prison. '  * 

"He  ought  to  be  in  his  grave,"  Francia  retorted.  "But 
then,  not  even  Espinosa  would  have  shot  a  friar.  And  my 
Creoles,  if  anything,  reverence  all  clergymen  and  semi- 
clergy  more  even  than  did  the  old  Spaniards,  which  is  too 
much.  My  Guaranies  revere  them,  almost  worship  them. 
I  dare  not  shoot  a  friar,  at  least  I  dared  not  shoot  one  five 
years  ago,  and  have  not  dared  yet.  To  put  a  friar  in  a 
dungeon  would  have  been  almost  as  bad  as  killing  him,  ill 
its  effect  on  the  Guaranies." 

Hawthorne  nodded. 

"I  was  also  curious,"  he  added,  "about  Felicien  Aben- 
dano." 

"No  mystery  about  him,"  Francia  rejoined.  "Disloy 
alty  to  me  has  never  appeared  among  my  Guaranies  ex 
cept  that  stirred  up  by  two  brothers,  of  whom  he  is  one. 
The  other  is  at  large,  or  dead.  I'd  cheerfully  shoot  Fe 
licien  if  I  were  sure  of  his  brother's  death.  Until  I  am,  or 
capture  him,  I'll  keep  this  imitator  close  and  that  other, 
Bernardino  Zapidas,  about  whom  you  are  probably  equally 
curious.  He  tried  to  do  among  the  c&steros  of  the  salt 
marshes  what  the  Abendanos  were  attempting  in  the  north 
east  from  Voquita  to  Forquilha  and  beyond  both.  He 
called  himself  generalissimo  to  Count  Galicien  le  Fort, 
Marquis  des  Guaranies.  That  is  the  way  these  lackeys 
mixed  up  French  titles  with  their  talk  of  universal  equal 
ity.  Have  you  any  more  questions  ? ' ' 

"I  was  also  curious  about  Don  Rodrigo  Yalta,"  Haw 
thorne  continued. 

"That  faded  popinjay!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "That 
brings  us  back  to  something  I  passed  over  on  Wednesday 
afternoon. 

"I  told  you  that  between  Dalmacio's  and  Domingo's  at 
tempts  on  my  life  several  others  had  narrowly  failed. 
Yalta's  failed  by  a  wide  margin.  He  was  a  second  emis 
sary  from  the  honourable  Portenos  to  compass  my  annihi- 


250  EL   SUPREMO 

lation,  sent  during  the  year  of  the  joint  consulate  and  fool 
enough  to  disclose  his  plans  to  Fulgencio.  Yegros  is  ten 
times  a  dolt,  but  he  is  honest,  and  he  told  me  at  once. 

"  Since  then  Don  Kodrigo  has  been  where  you  saw  him. 

"Since  tEe  second  convention  and  my  elevation  to  the 
Dictatorship,  I  have  detected  more  plots  for  my  assassina 
tion  than  I  should  care  to  narrate. 

' '  One  in  particular  I  will  describe,  as  you  have  seen  the 
prisoners  it  has  entrapped  into  my  prisons. 

' '  Fully  a  year  ago,  I  was  warned  that  Don  Esteban  Maria 
Perrichon,  Postmaster  General  of  Corrientes,  had  a  plan 
on  foot  to  compass  my  death.  The  two  brothers  Chilaber 
had  volunteered  to  kill  me,  and  had  themselves  outlined  a 
plausible  scheme,  to  which  I  should  certainly  have  fallen 
a  victim  had  I  not  been  forewarned.  They  came  in  one  of 
their  own  ships  with  a  cargo  of  general  merchandise ;  most 
attractive  and  salable  commodities.  There  were  some  dis 
crepancies  between  the  description  of  the  lading  in  the 
ship's  papers  and  the  nature  of  the  bales  and  packages 
found  on  the  ship,  a  dispute  naturally  arose  between  the 
customs-inspector  and  the  importers.  One  of  the  brothers, 
just  as  naturally,  proceeded  to  ask  for  an  audience  with 
me,  to  refer  the  matter  to  my  decision. 

"He  had  his  face  under  better  control  than  Pai  Dal- 
macio  had  had.  But  for  the  explicit  and  repeated  warn 
ings  I  had  received  from  Corrientes  I  should  never  have 
suspected  him.  As  it  was,  I  had  my  sabre  at  my  side.  I 
am  no  slow  or  unskilled  fencer.  I  felt  ashamed  to  doubt  so 
courtly  a  young  gentleman,  to  show  fear  of  such  a  mere 
lad.  I  kept  my  eye  on  the  hilt  of  his  hanger,  ready  for 
any  movement  of  his  hand  towards  it,  and  let  him  talk. 

"His  account  of  himself,  of  his  intentions,  of  his  diffi 
culties,  was  so  plausible  that  I  was  beginning  to  doubt  the 
discretion  or  the  good-faith  of  my  correspondents  in  Cor 
rientes,  when  he  made  as  if  to  produce  some  documents 
from  the  inner  pocket  of  his  coat. 

"His  face  and  hand  seemed  not  just  precisely  as  they 
would  have  been  had  he  had  only  documents  in  that  pocket. 
But,  unwarned,  I  should  never  have  noticed  the  fine  shade 
of  difference. 

"I  called  Iturbe.    Chilaber  was  pinioned  and  searched. 

"He  had  a  long  poniard  inside  his  coat.     Naturally  I 


THE   INSTALMENT  251 

had  him  cast  into  the  cell  where  you  saw  him,  and  confis 
cated  their  polacca  and  cargo.  As  the  younger  brother 
had  been  a  mere  passive  accomplice,  I  merely  sent  him  to 
the  public  prison.  You  have  undoubtedly  heard  the  rest 
of  the  story. ' ' 

1 '  I  have, ' '  Hawthorne  agreed.  * '  But  what  I  do  not  com 
prehend  is  why  both  brothers  were  not  shot  at  once,  or 
at  least  Don  Diego ;  or  why,  if  not  put  to  death,  they  were 
imprisoned  at  all.  If  not  guilty,  they  should  be  free;  if 
guilty,  they  surely  should  be  executed." 

Francia's  face  wore  an  expression  compounded  of  many 
conflicting  feelings.  It  was  grave,  quizzical,  tolerant  and 
haughty  all  at  one  and  the  same  time. 

"It  is  so  easy,"  he  said,  "to  think  and  talk  of  having 
suspects  shot  when  you  do  not  yourself  have  to  determine 
the  degree  of  guilt  and  order  the  execution.  If  you  ever 
come  yourself  into  such  a  position  of  responsibility  and 
authority,  you  will  feel  and  speak  very  differently.  Do 
you  recall  the  passage  in  Tacitus  where  he  tells  how  the 
Emperor  Tiberius  remarked  bitterly  that  no  one  save  the 
sovereign  himself  ever  believed  in  the  reality  of  a  plot  to 
kill  a  sovereign  unless  that  plot  succeeded?" 

"No,"  Hawthorne  replied.  "I  have  read  Tacitus,  but  I 
have  no  memory  of  the  passage. " 

"Perhaps  it  is  Suetonius,"  Francia  ruminated,  "or  told 
of  Domitian.  Anyhow,  it  is  pertinent  to  my  difficulties. 
If  I  am  sure  a  man  ought  to  be  shot,  I  have  him  shot  pre 
cisely  like  Espinosa  and  Larrazabal  or  any  Intendente  be 
fore  me.  But  if  I  have  no  actual  proofs,  I  hesitate.  I 
have  no  proofs  against  these  men.  I  cannot  betray  my 
faithful  henchmen  in  Buenos  Aires,  Santa  Fe  or  Corri- 
entes.  If  I  shoot  them,  all  men,  even  my  devoted  Guar- 
anies,  will  feel,  might  even  say,  that  I  am  acting  as  a  sus 
picious  tyrant.  Even  in  my  own  heart  I  doubt.  Diego 
did  not  actually  aim  at  me  the  weapon  he  carried  into  my 
presence.  There  were  Catalans  in  the  crew  of  the  polacca,, 
and  no  men  on  earth  are  more  quarrelsome,  vindictive  and 
treacherous.  One  or  more  might  have  had  a  grudge  against 
Diego.  He  might  have  feared  a  cowardly  attack.  Know 
ing  how  craftily  Catalans  creep  up  on  a  victim  and  how 
suddenly  they  pounce,  he  may  have  provided  himself  with 
a  quickly  drawn  poniard  inside  his  coat,  knowing  they 


252  EL   SUPREMO 

would  watch  his  hanger  only.  My  informants  down  river 
may  have  been  enemies  of  the  Chilabers,  or  over-zealous  or 
deceived. 

"No;  to  order  a  man  shot  I  must  be  very  sure  indeed. 
As  to  most  I  feel  that  God  gave  them  life,  it  is  for  Him  to 
take  it  away.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  hinder  them  from 
doing  mischief. ' ' 

' '  You  apply  that  to  the  Chilabers  ? ' '  Hawthorne  queried. 

"Precisely,"  Francia  answered. 

"Then  consider,"  Hawthorne  solemnly  declared,  "that 
you  are  killing  them  yourself  as  positively  as  if  you  or 
dered  them  shot.  Diego  is  wasting  away.  Alberto  has  a 
sabre-cut  over  the  forehead  which  will  surely  gangrene  in 
that  dungeon.  He  has  a  fever.  Neither  will  live  a  week." 

"That  is  like  Dominguez,"  Francia  exclaimed.  "He  is 
the  prison-surgeon  and  supposed  to  examine  every  pris 
oner  daily.  He  uniformly  reports  all  well.  To  make  sure, 
I  have  Narvaez,  the  barrack  surgeon,  inspect  the  prisons 
weekly.  He  went  over  them  Wednesday  and  reported  no 
serious  cases  of  any  kind.  I  am  hemmed  in  by  fools  or 
incompetents  or  liars  on  all  sides. 

' '  "What  do  you  want  me  to  do  ? " 

"At  least,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "you  might  let  me  take 
in  a  doctor  with  some  sense  and  capacity." 

"At  most,"  said  Francia,  "if  you  had  your  way,  what 
should  I  be  granting?" 

"That  they  be  taken  out  of  the  dungeon,  put  under 
guard,  on  any  one  of  the  vessels  the  embargo  keeps  at  an 
chor  in  the  harbour  and  tended  till  they  are  out  of  im 
mediate  danger." 

"You  ought  to  have  sense  enough  to  realise,"  Francia 
retorted,  with  a  tinge  of  his  worst  snarl  in  his  tone,  "that 
I  do  not  confine  in  dungeons  any  except  men  who  ought  to 
be  there." 

"I  assume  that  for  all  the  others,"  said  Hawthorne 
boldly.  "But  you  yourself  have  expounded  to  me  the 
Chilabers'  case  and  the  unreason  of  their  further  confine 
ment  in  dungeons.  They  are  no  political  menace  to  you 
like  Felicien  Abendano ;  no  insidious  disseminators  of  plot 
ting  like  Rodrigo  Yalta.  They  would  do  no  mischief  if  re 
leased.  There  is  not  the  smallest  chance  of  either  again 
attempting  your  life.  Their  experiences,  if  known,  would 


THE   INSTALMENT  253 

act  as  a  powerful  deterrent  upon  any  rashly  meditating  a 
similar  attempt.  I  not  only  ask  you  to  accede  to  the  plea 
I  have  put  in  for  them,  but  counsel  you  to  let  me  intimate 
to  them  that  they  will  be  permitted  to  return  to  Corrientes 
upon  agreeing  to  the  forfeiture  of  their  vessel  and  cargo  as 
a  fine." 

11  Humph!"  said  Francia.  "You  have  a  tongue!  Take 
them  a  doctor,  but  not  Don  Arsenio  Dominguez.  Better 
Parlett  drunk  than  old  Dominguez  sober.  Have  them  out 
and  put  them  on  Zelaya's  little  smack:  I'll  set  Ortellado 
to  guard  them.  He  can  be  trusted.  I'll  write  the  neces 
sary  orders.  And  111  think  over  the  idea  of  releasing 
them.  It  might  do  no  harm.  Sometimes  a  man  gets  cramp 
of  the  determination,  so  to  speak.  I  might  have  seen  all 
this  long  ago,  for  myself.  Are  all  New  Englanders,  like 
you,  a  sort  of  mental  tonic?" 

"Perhaps,"  Hawthorne  smiled.  "I  had  no  idea  I  was 
anything  like  that." 

"You  are,"  Francia  affirmed.  "And,  speaking  of  you, 
that  brings  me  back  to  the  beginning  of  our  talk.  I  believe 
I  have  now  contracted  for  as  large  an  instalment  of  my 
debt  to  you  as  it  would  be  well  to  pledge  myself  for  at  this 
time.  As  to  the  first  item  of  it,  what  are  your  wishes  as 
to  the  lady  in  the  hut?" 

Hawthorne  explained. 

"  I  'm  almost  ashamed  for  the  ladies  of  Asuncion, ' '  Fran 
cia  commented,  "and  half  ashamed  of  myself.  Yet  they 
are  right  in  their  dread  of  offending  me,  and  I  was  right 
to  inspire  it.  You  can  form  no  idea  of  how  I  was  pestered 
by  the  women  relations  of  every  man  I  arrested  until  I 
impressed  it  on  them  that  bothering  me  ensured  greater 
severity  towards  the  prisoner  and  the  sternest  chilliness 
towards  themselves  and  all  their  relatives.  Then  they  let 
me  alone.  But  I  had  to  exaggerate  my  exasperation  and 
seem  infuriated  to  produce  any  effect.  They  are  all  fools, 
the  Paraguayans. 

' '  But  the  papers  I  '11  give  you  will  convince  the  most  tim 
orous  that  it  will  be  perfectly  safe  to  abet  you  in  relieving 
the  lady's  distress  in  so  far  as  they  may.  Come,  let  us  go 
into  the  study,  and  I'll  write  the  papers." 

When  they  were  all  written,  signed  and  sealed,  and  Haw 
thorne  held  in  his  hands  the  authorisations  for  Don  Cristo- 


254  EL   SUPREMO 

bal's  release,  for  the  Chilabers'  transfer  to  an  anchored 
and  guarded  brigantine,  for  Dr.  Parlett  to  visit  them  be 
fore  and  after  their  transfer;  for  himself  to  visit  Dona 
Cecilia  as  often  as  he  pleased ;  for  any  lady  of  Asuncion  to 
accompany  him,  provided  not  more  than  two  went  at  once, 
and  a  separate  paper  in  the  form  of  an  edict  urging  and 
encouraging  all  and  any  ladies  of  Asuncion  to  interest 
themselves  in  the  welfare  of  the  women  prisoners  in  the 
public  prison,  Francia  cut  short  Hawthorne's  thanks. 

'  '  I  like  her  spirit ! ' '  he  said. 

"And  now/'  he  added,  in  a  different  tone.  "I  have 
tried  to  oblige  you,  suppose  you  oblige  me  a  bit.  Let  us 
have  a  game  of  chess.  In  here  it  is  stuffy.  There  is  not 
enough  air  stirring  to  gutter  the  candles  much,  even  at  the 
edge  of  the  bank.  Suppose  we  have  the  chess  table  out 
tinder  the  trees.  What  do  you  say  ? ' ' 

Hawthorne  acceded,  of  course,  and  the  Dictator  called 
Bopi,  who  carried  out  the  table  and  candles. 


(2) 

Saturday  was  a  busy  day  for  Hawthorne. 

His  conscience  drove  him  to  relieve  the  most  urgent  need 
first  and  to  postpone  his  chief  desire. 

Sobering  Dr.  Parlett  soon  after  sunrise  was  no  small  task. 
Lieutenant  Ortellado  refused  to  move  the  Chilabers  till  he 
had  made  as  sure  as  possible  of  the  smack.  He  removed 
all  its  sails  and  searched  every  cranny  of  its  hold  for  spare 
canvas.  He  requisitioned  chains  from  other  vessels  and 
anchored  the  smack  with  chain-cables.  All  of  which  took 
time. 

Doiia  Remedies  de  Maria  was  really  terrified  when  Haw 
thorne  and  Mayorga  called  upon  her:  the  object  of  their 
visit  she  found  altogether  incredible,  pinched  herself  to 
make  sure  she  was  not  dreaming,  and  when  Don  Vicente 
convinced  her  of  the  reality  of  their  mission,  she  dissolved 
into  a  flood  of  tears. 

Doiia  Encarnacion  was  also  incredulous  at  first,  but  when 
her  fat  husband,  lolling  coatless  and  waistcoatless  in  his 
armchair  under  his  portico,  chatting  with  the  prior  of  the 
Dominicans,  read  the  papers  and  affirmed  their  genuine- 


THE    INSTALMENT  255 

ness;  when  Padre  Ignacio  joined  him  in  confirming  Haw 
thorne  and  Mayorga,  she  roused  to  an  activity  which  few 
Massachusetts  women  could  have  surpassed. 

In  an  hour  she  had  ready  all  that  she  conceived  likely  to 
be  needed,  and  with  Dona  Engracia  accompanied  Haw 
thorne  to  the  prison. 

He  remained  in  the  men's  court,  sampling  Don  Angel's 
mendacity  and  prevarication,  until  the  two  ladies,  their 
eyelids  visibly  red  and  swollen,  returned  from  the  women's 
patio. 

"Go  to  her,  Don  Guillermo,"  Doiia  Encarnacion  said. 
"She  wishes  to  thank  you." 

Hawthorne  went,  wrapped  in  a  sort  of  golden  haze.  But 
as  he  stood  in  the  door  of  the  hut,  his  first  glimpse  of  Ce 
cilia's  face  dashed  his  spirits  like  a  douse  of  cold  water. 
She  stood  as  chill  and  haughty  as  three  days  before. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  she  said,  "I  am  told  that  I 
should  thank  you.  I  have  been  provided  with  clean  and 
comfortable  clothing,  with  many  longed-for  necessities,  and 
even  with  some  luxuries.  I  am  so  much  better  off  than  I 
was  an  hour  ago  that  I  cannot  believe  myself  the  same  crea 
ture.  I  am  rich  compared  to  what  I  was.  Above  all,  I 
have  good  friends  in  Asuncion,  where  an  hour  ago  I  had 
none.  I  am  told  I  owe  all  this  to  you,  and  that  I  should 
thank  you.  But  I  cannot  credit  it.  You  proclaimed  your 
self  the  friend  of  the  tyrant  and  high  in  his  favour.  I 
cannot  believe  that  any  good,  any  kindness  to  any  living 
being,  least  of  all  to  me,  could  come  from  him  or  any  of 
his  friends.  But  I  shall  try  to  believe  it.  Perhaps  I  may 
succeed  after  a  time.  At  this  time  I  can  only  say  that  if 
my  succour  is  really  due  to  your  intervention,  if  what  the 
two  ladies  have  told  me  is  really  true,  then  I  thank  you 
from  my  heart." 

Hawthorne  bowed  without  a  word  and  went  away. 

As  they  started  homeward  from  the  prison  door,  Dona 
Encarnacion  patted  him  on  the  arm,  and  said : 

1  'Your  eyes  are  good,  Don  Guillermo.  My  tupoi  and  my 
stockings  fitted  her  perfectly.  She  is  exactly  iny  height. 
But  my  shoes  were  just  a  trifle  too  small  for  her.  That 
pleased  my  Castilian  vanity. ' ' 


256  EL   SUPREMO 


CHAPTER   XX 

GOLD    COMBS   IN    CHURCH 
(1) 

AS  he  had  expressed  a  wish  to  go  to  church  with  the 
Mayorga  family,  Hawthorne  was  waked  on  Sun 
day  morning  when  the  first  tints  of  daylight  were 
greyly  filtering  through  the  bamboo  jalousies.  He 
dressed  hurriedly  and,  warned  by  Don  Vicente,  ate 
some  of  the  fruit  and  biscuits  set  out  over  night  on  his 
table. 

In  the  big  sola  he  found  the  family  assembled.  The 
ladies  were  on  the  estrada,  that  raised  platform  at  the  rear 
of  the  room  which  was  the  pride  of  every  Spanish- Ameri 
can  household.  The  men  and  young  folks  were  standing 
about  the  main  floor  of  the  room. 

Boys  and  men  were  all  in  their  gay  court-costumes,  as 
they  had  been  at  Itapua  at  the  -fiesta  of  St.  John.  Little 
Manrique  Romero,  in  particular,  struck  now  again  on  Haw 
thorne  as  an  absurdly  sedate  pocket-edition  of  his  father, 
his  tiny  personality  graver  and  more  elderly  than  any  of 
the  adults. 

In  contrast  to  the  gaudy  finery  of  the  men  and  boys,  the 
girls  and  ladies  were  completely  extinguished  in  all-envel 
oping  dresses  of  a  black  bombazine-like  wool  stuff  called 
"bayetilla,  their  heads  swathed  and  faces  concealed  under 
rebozos  of  the  same  dingy  material.  Hawthorne  noticed 
the  differences  of  local  meaning  in  the  word.  At  Buenos 
Aires,  as  at  Pamplona,  a  rebozo  meant  a  scarf;  at  Santa 
Fe  or  Corrientes  he  had  found  it  meant  a  muffler ;  at  Asun 
cion  a  rebozo  was  a  hideous  hood. 

The  moment  Hawthorne  appeared,  every  one  made  ready 
to  set  out.  Breakfast  was  to  be  after  returning  from  mass, 
to  which  all,  except  the  smaller  children,  went  fasting,  as 
communicants. 

Outside  they  were  joined  by  the  Recalde  elan  and 
merged  in  the  stream  of  worshippers  that  trickled  down  past 
the  Franciscan  Monastery  and  out  of  the  crooked  croes- 
streets  between  that  and  the  Convent  of  Mercy. 


GOLD    COMBS    IN    CHURCH       257 

The  throng  was  all  garbed  like  the  Mayorga  family,  the 
sombrely  muffled  ladies  and  misses,  their  tiny  shoe-tips 
barely  discernible  under  their  long  black  gowns,  their 
heads  invisible  under  their  rebozos,  their  hands  out  of 
sight  in  the  amplitude  of  their  sleeves,  the  big  black  beads 
of  their  long  rosaries  clacking  as  they  walked,  accentuating 
the  gala  attire  of  their  bedizened  males.  The  white  dresses 
of  the  women  of  inferior  station  in  life,  of  the  serving- 
women  who  carried  the  embroidered  rugs  on  which  the 
ladies  were  to  kneel,  and  the  dingy  ponchos  of  the 
labourers,  serving-men  and  slaves,  threw  still  more 
into  relief  the  butterfly  gorgeousness  of  the  male  gen 
try. 

By  Calle  Concepcion,  the  cross-street  coming  out  between 
the  corridored  fronts  of  the  shop-row,  they  reached  the 
public  square  beside  the  tower  of  the  Cathedral,  the  glory 
of  Asuncion  in  1816,  which,  though  acknowledgedly  not  as 
fine  as  the  famous  Jesuit  church  at  far-off  little  Santa 
Rosa,  was  the  largest  building  in  the  country.  It  was 
plain,  lengthy  and  rather  squat.  Its  nave  was  not  only 
long,  but  broad  and  low,  the  red-tiled  roof  low-pitched  and 
with  eaves  barely  projecting.  The  side-walls  were  white 
washed,  but  much  of  the  lime  had  peeled  off  the  brick  and 
the  effect  was  leprous  and  blotchy. 

Inside,  the  sexes  were  separated:  men  on  the  right, 
women  on  the  left.  The  rear  part  of  the  church  was  filled 
with  meaner  folk,  the  women  a  mass  of  misty,  glimmering 
white  gowns  and  filmy  white  scarfs  covering  their  hair ;  the 
men  a  blur  of  black,  touzled  heads  above  blackish-brown 
ponchos. 

Forward  from  about  the  middle  of  the  church  knelt  the 
gentry,  filling  the  nave  nearly  to  the  altar-rail,  the  dons  on 
the  bare  brick  floor,  like  their  inferiors,  the  ladies  on 
bright  rugs.  Near  the  altar-rail  was  an  empty  space,  in 
which  were  set,  three  on  each  side,  six  tarimas.  These  were 
low  platforms,  some  four  feet  wide  and  ten  long  and 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  high.  They  were  intended  to  ele 
vate  the  privileged  few  more  than  a  flea-jump  above  the 
floor,  and  so  free  them  from  the  general  distraction  and 
annoyance  caused  by  the  prevalent  insects.  On  them  knelt 
the  civil  dignitaries,  Don  Gumesindo,  Don  Olegario,  Don 
Basilio,  and  the  rest,  on  the  Epistle  side  of  the  altar,  before 


258  EL   SUPREMO 

the  men,  and  their  women-folk  on  the  Gospel  side  before 
the  ladies. 

Hawthorne,  against  the  wall  by  a  window,  though  he  had 
become  acquainted  with  South  American  customs  in  Gra 
nada  and  Buenos  Aires,  surveyed  the  scene  with  interest. 
The  interior  of  the  church  was  gloomy,  save  for  the  blaze 
of  candles  over  the  main  central  altar  and  of  the  few  be 
fore  the  statue  of  St.  Joseph  that  faced  the  men  and  of  the 
Madonna  facing  the  women.  The  contrast  of  colour  struck 
him  most :  behind  him  the  smudge  of  dingy  rabble,  farthest 
off  the  white  haze,  as  it  were  of  their  women,  in  front  to 
his  left  the  black  masses  of  the  ladies,  all  kneeling  on  both 
knees,  their  general  sable  tint  .relieved  only  by  a  few 
glimpses  of  their  kneeling-rugs  that  showed  between,  or  an 
occasional  bit  of  white  stocking  showing  above  a  barely 
visible  heel;  ahead  of  him,  the  mosaic  of  the  jewel-tinted 
gentlemen's  suits,  all  bright  even  in  the  dimness  as  they 
knelt  all  in  the  same  attitude,  right  knee  on  the  floor,  body 
almost  sitting  on  the  right  heel,  left  elbow  on  the  left  knee, 
jaw  on  the  left  hand,  their  gaudy  fineries  brilliant  above 
the  shine  of  their  hundreds  of  white  silk  stockings.  One 
or  two  doctors  of  laws,  all  in  black,  showed  like  bits  of  jet 
among  rubies  and  emeralds. 

Between  the  males  and  females  paced  solemnly  that 
grave  young  seven-footer,  Don  Saturnino  Bedoya,  gor 
geous  in  a  court-suit  of  scarlet  and  gold,  his  gold-mounted 
rapier-sheath  slanting  from  under  his  long  coat-tails,  his 
gold-laced,  beplumed  cocked  hat  under  his  arm,  the  big 
gold  head  of  his  long  walking-cane  level  with  his  shoul 
ders,  his  whole  being  a-swell  with  the  importance  of  his 
duty  to  see  that  order  and  decorum  prevailed  (as  they 
would  have  prevailed  in  that  pious  throng  had  he  been  in 
the  moon). 

Last  of  the  gentry,  even  a  trifle  late,  which  hardly  any 
one  ever  was  in  Asuncion,  entered  Don  Manuel  Bianquet 
and  his  wife,  her  lovely  charge,  Senorita  Ventura  Velarde, 
and  her  beaming  godfather,  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda. 
Don  Gregorio  wore  the  same  dove-drab  coat  with  the  many 
big  pearl  buttons,  the  same  rainbow  waistcoat,  the  same 
gold  knee  and  shoe  buckles,  which  had  so  become  him  at 
the  fiesta.  Don  Manuel  was  all  in  orange  satin  with  blue 
facings,  flaps,  pockets  and  cuffs.  But  on  men  such  bril- 


GOLD    COMBS   IN    CHURCH       259 

liance  excited  no  remark  in  Asuncion.  The  ladies  with 
them,  however,  were  a  portent  at  that  time  and  in  that 
place. 

For  they  wore  no  rebozos,  no  bayetilla.  Dona  Juanita 
had  on  black  satin  shoes,  fine  rihbed  white  silk  stockings, 
displaying  neat,  well-turned  ankles  below  the  fringe  of  her 
black  satin  skirt.  More  fringe  emphasised  the  rather  low 
cut  of  her  bodice,  and  the  beauty  of  her  neck,  covered,  but 
not  hidden,  by  the  tasteful  drapery  of  her  black  lace  man 
tilla,  very  fine  and  thin  and  permitting  a  sufficient  view 
of  her  face,  her  glossy  black,  exquisitely  braided  hair  and 
of  the  tall  gold  comb  that  held  it.  From  under  it  her  hands 
showed  very  tiny,  encased  in  white-kid  gloves,  the  latest 
Parisian  importation  at  Buenos  Aires.  They  held  a  black 
lace  French  fan. 

Ventura's  garb  had  in  it  no  trace  of  the  coquettishness 
which  radiated  from  Dona  Juanita,  and  every  visible  thread 
she  wore;  but  Ventura,  insulated  in  serene,  unconscious 
self-possession,  was  more  arresting  to  attention  than  any 
coquette. 

She  was  shod  and  hosed  like  her  chaperon,  and  her  sim 
ilarly  gloved  hands  carried  a  similar  fan.  Her  hair  comb 
was  also  of  gold,  her  mantilla  of  antique  Italian  lace;  her 
dress  black  lace  over  a  pearl  silk  ground. 

Their  garb  was  a  portent  indeed ;  far  more  of  a  portent 
the  unmistakable  fact  that  both  wore  stays! 

A  corseted  waist,  two  corseted  waists  in  the  Cathedral 
of  Asuncion  in  1816 !  Try  to  imagine  the  effect  if  the  wife 
of  a  New  York  millionaire  and  the  daughter  of  a  Chicago 
pork-packer  attended  church  in  Omaha  clad  in  the  laced 
bodices,  gauze  skirts  and  pink  tights  of  the  conventional 
coryphees  of  an  opera  ballet!  At  Asuncion  in  1816  the 
effect  on  the  worshippers,  the  ladies  who  came  to  be  wor 
shippers,  in  the  Cathedral,  was  similar  to  what  would  be 
caused  by  two  ladies  in  circus  rider's  garb  in  St.  Paul's, 
London,  in  our  days.  The  pious  ladies  were  distracted 
from  their  devotions,  one  after  another  noticed  the  new 
comers,  a  ripple  of  whispers  ran  through  the  black-hooded, 
kneeling  throng;  there  were  nudgings  and  turnings  and 
craning  of  necks ;  murmurs  arose ;  acrimonious  underbreath 
colloquies  ensued;  the  universal  buzz  among  the  scandal 
ised  ladies  amounted  to  a  disturbance ;  the  attention  of  the 


260  EL    SUPREMO 

priests  was  attracted;  they  were  shocked  at  the  interrup 
tion  to  worship  and  horrified  at  the  cause,  when  their  gaze 
was  directed  that  way. 

The  gorgeous  Bedoya  suddenly  found  his  office  no  sine 
cure.  After  a  summons  from  Pai  Damaso  Montiel  and  a 
brief  exchange  of  whispers  with  him,  he  had  the  exquisite 
mortification  of  having  to  approach  Seiiorita  Velarde  and 
her  chaperon  and  command  them  to  leave  the  consecrated 
edifice. 

Naturally  they  were  angry.  Dona  Juanita  was  contemp 
tuous  of  provincial  imbecility;  Ventura  vexed  at  the  fuss 
she  had  innocently  caused  and  hurt  that  her  spontaneous 
fervour  should  be  balked  of  the  satisfaction  she  had  antici 
pated  in  worship  and  communion  at  her  home  church ;  Don 
Manuel  furious  and  Don  Gregorio  in  a  towering  rage. 

Out  they  went,  the  serving-women  behind  them,  the 
gaudy  rugs  over  their  arms. 

Hawthorne  was  nearly  as  angry  as  Don  Manuel  or  Don 
Gregorio,  but  also  felt  a  tendency  to  laugh  at  the  comical 
absurdity  of  such  primitive  provincialism. 

He  kept  his  peace  and  his  place,  and  endeavoured  to  ab 
sorb  himself  in  the  mere  picture  the  interior  of  the  Cathe 
dral  presented,  a  sight  sufficiently  interesting. 

The  main  picture  made  by  church  and  congregation  had 
also  painted  pictures  inset  in  it:  the  inevitable  stations  of 
the  cross  and  also  three  large  canvases  crowded  with  fig 
ures  not  ill  painted  and  set  in  frames  very  broad  and  heavy- 
looking,  apparently  of  wood  carved  and  gilded,  mostly 
baroque  convolutions  of  meaningless  projections  and  curves, 
but  also  with  fruit  and  flowers  among  the  scroll-work. 

Edging  nearer  the  largest  of  the  three,  as  the  people  be 
gan  to  move  out,  Hawthorne  found  the  painting  an  intel 
ligible  attempt  at  depicting  the  Last  Supper ;  the  frame  an 
amazing  construction  of  clipped  and  gilded  feathers  most 
artfully  devised  to  resemble  the  ornate  picture  frames  then 
fashionable  in  Spain ;  the  whole  as  light  as  it  looked  heavy. 

As  the  congregation  streamed  out  of  the  church,  Haw 
thorne  asked  Don  Vicente  why  there  was  no  sermon,  and 
was  informed  that  sermons  were  preached  in  Asuncion 
only  in  Lent. 

On  their  way  back  the  conversation  was  one  continuous 
chatter  of  discussion  on  the  subject  of  church-going  cos- 


GOLD    COMBS   IN    CHURCH       261 

tume  for  ladies,  provincialism,  and  propriety.  The  May- 
orgas  and  Recaldes,  holding  themselves  above  the  gener 
ality  of  their  townsfolk,  were  inclined  to  side  with  Ventura 
and  Dona  Juanita,  but  the  ladies  made  reservations,  being 
one  and  all  habituated  to  'bayetilla  and  relozos,  and  every 
one  of  them  horrified,  horrified  beyond  any  words  of  theirs 
to  express  their  horror,  at  gold  combs  on  ladies  in  church. 

(2) 

Breakfast  was  barely  over  at  the  Mayorga  mansion  when, 
in  came  Don  Gregorio  and  Don  Manuel,  seeking  Haw 
thorne.  Don  Manuel  was  determined  that  his  wife  should 
be  admitted  to  the  Cathedral  and  to  communion  there  in 
the  identical  garb  she  had  worn  when  expelled;  and  Don 
Gregorio  was  still  more  resolved  that  public  reparation  be 
made  to  his  favourite  goddaughter.  They  were  for  ap 
pealing  to  the  Dictator,  knowing  that  Pai  Montiel  would 
be  obdurate,  partly  from  his  native  obstinacy  and  still 
more  from  his  sense  of  self-importance  in  the  absence  of 
the  Bishop.  They  wanted  Hawthorne  to  go  with  them  to 
the  Palacio  and  to  join  in  the  appeal.  Hawthorne  at  once 
agreed  to  go,  stipulating,  however,  that  he  was  to  remain 
entirely  in  the  background  unless  his  intervention  was 
needed. 

' '  But, ' '  Don  Gregorio  demurred,  ' '  Don  Manuel  is  not  in 
favour  at  the  Government  House,  nor  am  I.  You  are  in 
high  favour,  in  the  highest  favour.  If  you  are  able  to  win 
indulgences,  unheard-of  indulgences,  for  prisoners  in  whom 
you  have  no  interest  save  mere  human  sympathy,  surely 
you  should  be  willing  to  intercede  for  ladies  who  have  be 
come  your  close  friends  on  a  long  voyage  up-river. ' ' 

"I  am  willing, n  Hawthorne  said,  "more  than  willing. 
But  it  seems  to  me  that  I  ought  not  to  presume  too  much 
on  my  favour  at  the  Palacio,  nor  should  favouritism  figure 
at  all  in  a  matter  that  should  be  settled  by  mere  statement 
of  the  facts,  on  a  basis  of  plain  justice." 

"Plain  justice,"  Bianquet  put  in,  "is  easy,  even  too  easy, 
to  come  by  at  the  Palacio  once  you  have  caught  El  Su 
premo's  ear.  But  it  is  very  difficult  to  catch  his  ear.  He 
is  likely  to  decide  any  matter  half  heard,  on  first  impulse." 

"That  is  precisely  why  I  am  even  eager  to  go  with  you," 


262  EL   SUPREMO 

Hawthorne  rejoined.  "If  any  such  danger  appears,  I 
can  ensure  a  full  hearing.  I  can  speak  up  quite  naturally 
as  a  close  friend  of  both  the  injured  ladies.  But  the  first 
statement  of  the  case  should  come  from  you,  Dona  Juan- 
ita's  husband,  and,  in  the  absence  of  her  family,  from 
Seiiorita  Velarde's  godfather." 

"I  had  rather  you  acted  as  spokesman,"  Don  Gregorio 
sighed.  "We  hoped  you  would,  that  is  why  we  came  for 
you." 

"I  am  a  foreigner,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "and  this  is  my 
seventh  day  in  Asuncion.  Don  Manuel  has  sojourned  here 
for  two  years.  You  have  lived  here  so  long  that  you  have 
almost  forgotten  you  were  born  at  Cordova.  This  is  no 
matter  for  a  foreigner  to  meddle  in  if  he  can  keep  out  of  it. 
If  you  need  a  spokesman,  call  on  Beltran;  he  will  throw 
himself  into  the  affair  with  vigour  and  use  all  his  powers 
of  persuasion,  which  are  not  small." 

"Beltran,"  Don  Gregorio  said,  "will  not  come  in  from 
Itapua  until  just  before  the  second  mass.  Then  it  will  be 
too  late  to  explain  matters  to  him  and  enlist  his  help  in 
time  to  effect  anything  to-day.  Next  Sunday  will  bring 
reparation  for  Dona  Juanita,  but  Ventura  must  set  out 
to-morrow  for  San  Bernardino.  It  took  all  our  -wheedling 
to  induce  her  to  remain  over  to-day.  She  stayed  only  be 
cause  of  her  desire  to  go  to  communion  in  the  Cathedral. 
Nothing  will  induce  her  to  remain  longer.  She  must  be 
vindicated  to-day  or  never.  Beltran  cannot  now  arrive  in 
time  to  help  us." 

' '  Let  us  set  off  at  once,  then, ' '  Hawthorne  summed  up. 


(3) 

On  their  way  to  the  Government  House,  both  tried  to 
persuade  Hawthorne  to  put  himself  forward,  approach  the 
sentry,  and  lead  the  way  into  the  dread  presence.  He  clung 
to  his  first  resolution. 

Don  Gregorio  explained  that  Francia  regarded  his  Sun 
days  as  all  his  own,  as  golden  leisure  to  be  spent  in  rest, 
meditation,  reading,  study  or  scientific  investigations.  He 
detested  to  be  disturbed,  and  any  intrusion  roused  his 
wrath.  All  Asuncion  knew  that  he  had  given  explicit  or- 


GOLD   COMBS    IN    CHURCH        263 

ders  that  Hawthorne  was  to  be  admitted  at  any  hour  of 
the  day  or  night.  If  he  availed  himself  of  his  privilege, 
the  Dictator  could  not  take  any  umbrage. 

Hawthorne  insisted  that  he  keep  back  and  use  his  influ 
ence  only  as  a  last  resort. 

The  sentinel  at  the  entrance  to  the  Palacio  courtyard 
looked  with  no  favour  on  the  two  gentlemen,  and  only  after 
a  lengthy  expostulation  did  he  call  Bopi. 

The  mulatto  was  curt  and  brusque  to  the  dons ;  but  when 
they  stood  apart  and  he  recognised  Hawthorne  behind  them 
he  cringed  and  jabbered  Guarani. 

"He  says,"  Don  Gregorio  whispered,  "that  you  may 
enter  but  we  may  not." 

"Tell  him,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "that  unless  he  takes 
in  your  names  to  El  Supremo,  I  shall  be  very  angry  and 
equally  angry  if  he  mentions  my  name  along  with  yours." 

Bopi  cringed  yet  more  and  went  off.  He  returned  with 
permission  to  enter. 

They  found  Prancia  not  in  uniform,  but  wearing  his 
flowered  calico  dressing-gown  over  his  sabre  and  belt,  girt 
upon  the  black  waistcoat,  knee-breeches  and  stockings  of  a 
doctor  of  laws.  His  hair  was  not  queued  nor  powdered,  but 
hanging  over  his  shoulders  in  long  black  ringlets,  natural 
and  glossy.  He  had  a  cigar  in  one  hand  and  a  mate  gourd 
in  the  other,  for,  as  to  every  genuine  Paraguayan,  so  to 
the  exalted  doctor,  leisure,  even  his  cultured  leisure,  meant, 
even  if  along  with  reading  or  study,  continual  smoking 
and  almost  continual  sipping  of  the  national  beverage. 

When  they  were  still  some  paces  from  him  he  recognised 
Hawthorne  and  stood  up,  calling  out: 

' '  Senor  Don  Guillermo !  "Why  did  you  not  send  in  your 
name?" 

"I  am  merely  accompanying  these  gentlemen,"  Haw 
thorne  replied.  "The  business  on  which  we  have  come  is 
scarcely  mine,  and  decidedly  theirs." 

"Business!"  Francia  exclaimed,  without  any  greetings 
to  any  of  the  three.  ' '  Business  on  a  Sunday !  "What  busi 
ness?" 

He  glared  alternately  at  Don  Gregorio  and  Don  Manuel. 

"What  brings  you  here  on  a  holy  day?"  he  demanded. 

Bowing  ceremoniously,  the  plumes  of  their  cocked  hats 
sweeping  the  pavement,  both  uttered : 


264  EL    SUPREMO 

"  Excelentisimo  Senor "     And  both  thereupon  re« 

lapsed  into  silence,  continuing  to  bow. 

' '  Come !  Come ! "  the  Dictator  blurted  out  testily.  ' '  Am 
I  watching  a  puppet-show  ?  Since  you  are  here,  speak  up ! " 

He  set  his  mate  gourd  on  the  table,  where  it  rolled  over 
two  or  three  times  before  it  came  to  rest  on  one  of  its 
flatter  sides,  threw  his  cigar  on  the  pavement,  and  leaned 
forward  in  his  chair,  a  hand  on  each  arm  of  it,  his  attitude 
all  attention. 

''We  have  a  petition  to  present, "  Don  Manuel  began. 

"On  Sunday!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "Will  it  not  wait 
until  Monday?" 

"The  case  is  peculiar,"  Don  Manuel  replied,  with  spirit. 
"An  injustice  has  been  done  which  can  be  remedied  only 
on  a  Sunday  and  should  be  atoned  for  at  once.  This,  at 
least,  is  our  view.  We  ask  you  to  hear  our  statement  and 
decide,  believing  that  you  will  consider  our  complaint  well 
justified." 

'Don  Manuel,"  the  Dictator  responded  slowly,  his  eyes 
fixed^  on  the  merchant's,  "you  are  gravely  suspected  of 
unfair  dealings  with  us  Paraguayans.  Grumblings  reach 
my  ears  that  the  quality  of  your  wares  is  sometimes,  is 
often,  not  as  represented ;  that  your  profits  are  unconscion 
ably  great  wherever  the  cost  to  you  of  your  goods  is  un 
known  to  the  purchasers ;  that  your  driving  of  bargains  is 
too  wily  to  be  thought  just ;  that  you  are  a  fierce  and  re 
lentless  creditor  to  any  unfortunate  debtor.  I  do  not  love 
men  who  make  for  themselves  such  a  reputation  in  a  two 
years  ^  sojourn.  But  while  I  warn  you  that  you  are  under 
suspicion,  I  have  no  proofs  against  you.  If  I  ever  hear 
proof  of  the  rumours  I  have  detailed,  you  shall  smart  for 
your  evil  ways.  I  warn  you.  Meantime,  a  man  only  under 
suspicion  is  a  man  to  be  treated,  in  all  other  matters,  as 
if  under  no  cloud.  I  shall  no  more  disfavour  you  than 
favour  you.  Speak  out.  State  your  case  fully  and  fear 
lessly." 

Senor  Bianquet  thereupon  described  Dona  Juanita's  hu 
miliation.  Francia  listened,  put  in  several  questions  con 
cerning  the  lady 's  demeanour,  and  then  commanded : 

"Describe  precisely  what  your  wife  was  wearing,  omit* 
ting  nothing." 

Don  Manuel  began  with  the  black  satin  shoes,  and  was 


GOLD   COMBS   IN    CHURCH       265 

as  exact  and  exhaustive  in  his  description  as  a  mere  man 
could  be  expected  to  be  in  the  matter  of  ladies'  apparel. 
Francia  listened  closely,  several  times  nodding  and  ejacu 
lating  : 

"Nothing  to  object  to;  nothing!    Perfectly  proper! 

"Corsets!"  he  exclaimed  later.  "There's  the  difficulty, 
the  chief  difficulty ! 

"Go  on!"  he  commanded.  "Go  on!"  And  he  listened 
benignantly. 

But  when  Don  Manuel  uttered  the  words  "gold  comb," 
Francia  visibly  bristled  and  glared. 

"A  gold  comb?"  he  burst  out.  "In  church?  A  gold 
comb  on  your  wife?  Your  wife  wore  a  gold  comb  in 
church?  Your  wife?  This  is  a  strange  sort  of  wife  you 
have  brought  from  Montevideo,  Don  Manuel.  I  have  heard 
of  queer  doings,  but  never  yet  of  a  gentleman  wedding  a 
Gold  Comb,  still  less  of  his  advertising  the  fact ;  far  less  of 
her  advertising  it!  And  on  Sunday,  and  with  her  hus 
band!  And  in  church!  This  is  indeed  monstrous!  I  do 
not  wonder  that  she  was  expelled,  and  I  do  wonder  at  your 
having  the  effrontery  to  come  here  and  complain.  Be 
gone  ! ' ' 

Don  Manuel,  stunned  and  dumb,  was  too  dazed  to  move 
a  muscle.  Don  Gregorio  was  almost  equally  abashed. 

"May  I  speak?"  Hawthorne  interjected. 

* '  Certainly ! ' '  Francia  answered  in  his  normal  voice  and 
tones. 

"And  may  the  petitioners  remain  until  I  have  spoken?"" 

"If  you  wish,"  the  Dictator  consented  grudgingly. 


(4) 

"I  believe,"  Hawthorne  began,  "that  Asuncion  is  the 
only  city  on  earth  where  a  gold  comb  in  her  hair  is  a  badge 
of  degradation  and  shame  for  any  woman.  Not  only  does 
a  gold  comb  imply  no  disrepute  in  Philadelphia  or  Bos 
ton,  London  or  Paris,  but  I  saw  not  only  merely  respect 
able  women,  but  ladies  of  the  highest  and  most  honoured 
families  in  Buenos  Aires  wearing  gold  combs  in  their  hair 
even  in  the  streets,  even  in  church.  In  church  I  saw  none 
in  Santa  Fe  or  Corrientes,  for  we  were  not  ashore  at  either 


266  EL   SUPREMO 

on  Sunday,  but  at  both  I  saw  ladies  of  the  best  families 
wearing  gold  combs  on  the  street.  So  it  is  quite  natural 
that  Dona  Juanita  should  know  nothing  of  the  local  pecu 
liarities  of  Asuncion." 

' '  You  are  right ! ' '  Francia  exclaimed,  slapping  his  knee. 
* '  I  have  read  as  much,  read  it  more  than  once,  but  it  slipped 
my  mind.  Don  Manuel,  I  apologise  for  my  implications, 
though  you  perceive  how  naturally  I  fell  into  my  error." 

Don  Manuel  bowed. 

"But  tell  me,"  Francia  continued,  "how  did  it  happen 
that  you  did  not  warn  your  wife?  You  have  been  here 
two  years.  Surely  you  knew  our  local  customs  ? ' ' 

"I  had  been  told,  I  now  remember,"  Don  Manuel  ad 
mitted.  "But  my  associations  here  have  not  been  with 
such  women  nor  with  men  who  frequent  them.  As  with 
yourself,  Excelentisimo  Senor,  if  you  will  permit  me  to 
make  the  comparison,  the  fact  slipped  my  mind." 

"Very  well  spoken,"  Francia  chuckled,  "and  I  am  dis 
posed  to  grant  your  petition,  which  you  have  not  formu 
lated.  I  conjecture  that  you  desire  me  to  compel  the  clergy 
to  admit  your  wife  to  church  and  communion  in  the  garb 
she  wore  when  expelled  from  the  Cathedral?" 

Don  Manuel  confirmed  the  Dictator's  surmise. 

' '  In  the  absence  of  Bishop  de  Panes, ' '  Francia  went  on, 
"you  were  quite  right  to  appeal  to  me.  But  I  cannot  see 
that  I  should  interfere.  'When  in  Rome,  do  as  the  Ro 
mans  do, '  says  the  old  proverb.  It  is  all  very  well  for  your 
wife  to  introduce  the  fashions  of  Europe  and  Buenos  Aires 
or  Montevideo  at  a  tertulia  or  fiesta.  Last  Thursday  I 
thought  her  entirely  justified  by  the  effect  she  produced, 
and  I  could  wish  to  see  some  of  our  city  beauties  similarly 
habited.  But  local  customs  of  worship  are  not  lightly  to 
be  infringed  upon  by  any  one.  A  novelty  that  gives  scan 
dal  is  scandalous  in  giving  scandal.  And  as  to  regulations 
of  what  goes  on  in  the  Cathedral  the  clergy  are  in  their 
right  to  use  their  discretion.  It  is  for  them  to  decide  what 
garb  fits  the  interior  of  the  sacred  building.  If  your  wife 
desires  to  attend  services,  to  receive  communion,  she  must 
conform  to  the  regulations  the  clergy  see  fit  to  impose. ' ' 

Don  Manuel  bowed  in  silence. 

"And  you,  Don  Gregorio,"  Francia  continued,  "was  it 
to  second  Don  Manuel's  petition  that  you  came  here?" 


GOLD   COMBS   IN    CHURCH       267 

"  Excelentisimo  Senor,"  said  Don  Gregorio,  bowing,  "I 
have  one  of  my  own  in  addition. " 

"You  cannot  expect  me,  Gregorio/'  Francia  sneered,  "to 
welcome  a  petition  from  you  or  look  on  it  with  favour. 
But  you  shall  have  justice.  I  listen." 

"Along  with  Dona  Juanita  Bianquet,"  Don  Gregorio 
said,  "my  goddaughter  was  expelled  from  the  Cathedral 
on  the  same  pretext." 

"And  you  disturb  me  and  take  up  my  time  for  this!" 
Francia  snorted.  "Don  Manuel  had  some  basis  of  com 
plaint,  and  Dona  Juanita  erred  innocently.  But  that  one 
of  your  innumerable  goddaughters  should  be  so  carried 
away  by  vanity  as  to  imitate  an  imported  fashion  before 
she  who  brought  it  had  time  to  air  it  herself,  should  be  in 
such  a  rage  of  emulation  that  she  must  needs  garb  herself 
in  the  foreign  style  three  days  after  it  was  first  seen  in 
Paraguay,  should  be  so  tactless  that  she  must  first  show  it 
in  church,  this  is  not  to  be  borne.  Tell  her  that  what  is 
good  enough  for  other  women  here  is  good  enough  for  her, 
that  what  has  heen  good  enough  for  her  will  always  be  good 
enough  for  her.  And  remember,  if  you  ever  present  your 
self  before  me  again  with  so  baseless  a  complaint,  with  so 
frivolous  a  petition,  I  shall  see  that  you  are  properly  chas 
tened  for  your  temerity." 

Don  Gregorio  might  almost  have  been  said  to  shrink 
visibly,  his  chagrin  so  permeated  him.  Yet  he  essayed  to 
speak. 

"But  I  thought "  he  began. 

"Think  when  you  are  permitted  to  think!"  Francia 
thundered.  "When  I  speak,  obey;  and  remember  that  by 
the  voice  of  the  people  I  have  been  designated  to  think  for 
you  as  well  as  for  all  the  rest  of  Paraguay ! ' ' 

The  two  dons,  baffled  and  humiliated,  were  still  incred 
ulous  in  their  disappointment.  They  hesitated  to  go,  yet 
were  almost  in  act  to  bow  their  leave-takings. 

The  "Go  with  God !"  was  visibly  forming  itself  on  Fran 
cia  's  lips,  when  Hawthorne  again  interposed: 

"Most  Excellent  Sir,"  he  said,  "may  I  speak  again?" 

"Now  we  shall  get  at  the  point,  I  perceive!"  Francia 
exclaimed,  "only  don't  ( Excelentisimo  Senor'  me  any  more. 
Say  'you'  or  omit  any  form  of  address.  Speak,  by  all 
means.  I  have  been  wondering  at  your  presence  with  these 


268  EL   SUPREMO 

gentlemen.  You  may  speak  as  many  words  as  you  please. 
Yon  do  not  speak  at  random.  I  have  already  noted  that, 
and  I  can  refuse  you  nothing,  as  you  well  comprehend. " 

"Don  Gregorio,"  Hawthorne  said,  "did  not  tell  you  the 
name  of  the  particular  goddaughter  to  whom  he  had  refer 
ence/' 

Francia  frowned  again. 

"What  has  her  name  to  do  with  a  matter  already  de 
cided  ? "  he  queried  haughtily. 

Hawthorne's  still  grey  eyes  bored  into  his. 

"  I  do  not  speak  at  random,  you  tell  me, ' '  he  uttered. 

Francia  inclined  his  head. 

"Don  Gregorio,"  he  asked  tonele&sly,  "which  of  your 
swarm  of  goddaughters  suffered  expulsion  from  the  Ca 
thedral  because  of  the  novelty  of  her  attire  ?" 

"It  was  Senorita  Ventura  Velarde,"  Don  Gregorio  told 
him. 

Francia  stood  up  abruptly.  Abruptly  he  sat  down  again. 
The  palm  of  his  hand  drummed  on  the  jaguar-head  fin- 
ial  of  the  chair-arm.  His  eyes  narrowed,  his  nostrils  di 
lated. 

"Senorita  Velarde,  then,"  he  uttered,  "did  not  set  out 
for  San  Bernardino  yesterday?" 

"No,"  said  Don  Gregorio;  "she  remained  in  Asuncion 
to  hear  mass  and  receive  holy  communion  before  the  final 
stage  of  her  home  journey.  The  Nuestra  Senora  del  Car- 
men  happened  to  reach  Santa  Fe  on  a  Monday  and  Cor- 
rientes  on  a  Tuesday;  in  neither  case  did  Banfi  dare  to 
delay  when  a  favourable  wind  sprang  up.  So  that  Ven 
tura  has  not  heard  mass  since  she  left  Buenos  Aires." 

"And  these  brutes,"  the  Dictator  burst  out,  "these  bar 
barians,  these  rustics,  these  unschooled  provincial  monks, 
these  fools  of  priests  of  Asuncion,  affront,  insult,  expel  from 
church  a  young  lady  of  a  lineage  the  best  in  Paraguay,  of 
a  culture  better  than  the  best,  of  a  presence  and  mien  that 
would  command  the  respect  of  idiots  or  fiends ! 

"This  is  the  work  of  that  dolt  Montiel!  This  would 
never  have  happened  had  Bishop  de  Panes  been  in  Asun 
cion.  He  is  a  gentleman  withal  and  a  travelled  patrician,  a 
cosmopolite.  He  would  have  comprehended. 

"However,  the  point  now  is  to  set  right  the  blunder  his 
imbecile  underlings  have  committed.  I'll  show  them! 


GOLD   COMBS    IN   CHURCH        269 

Senorita  Velarde  shall  have  mass,  shall  receive  communion 
in  the  identical  garb  which  she  wore  when  expelled." 

At  these  words  Francia  paused.  His  face  turned  grey. 
His  mouth  opened. 

"Don  Gregorio,"  he  almost  whispered,  "did  Senorita 
Ventura  wear  a  gold  comb  ? ' ' 

"She  did/'  Don  Gregorio  admitted  shamefacedly. 

* '  And  you  did  not  warn  her ! ' '  Francia  reproached  him. 

Don  Gregorio  hung  his  head. 

"I  am  a  Cordovez,  by  birth/'  he  pleaded.  "The  con 
sciousness  of  the  customs  of  Asuncion  is  not  part  of  my 
self.  I  should  have  noticed,  but  I  never  did.  All  I  per 
ceived  was  that  every  part  of  her  attire  perfectly  became 
her." 

"The  innocent  angel!"  Francia  breathed  softly.  "She 
left  here  too  young  to  be  smirched  with  any  knowledge  of 
our  vices  or  sins.  She  has  become  habituated  to  the  usages 
of  politer  communities.  And  she  must  suffer  for  it !  Those 
who  made  her  suffer  shall  make  full  reparation ;  and  before 
all  our  world  and  at  once." 

Again  he  checked. 

"Have  you  gentlemen  breakfasted?"  he  queried. 

"We  have,"  Don  Manuel  replied,  forgetting  to  put  in 
the  title,  "but  not  Juanita  nor  Ventura.  They  were  so 
sure  of  vindication  that  both  are  still  fasting,  awaiting  our 
return." 

"A  long  fast,"  spoke  Francia  grimly.  "But  I  shall 
make  it  worth  their  while." 

He  pulled  out  his  big  silver-cased  English  watch. 

"The  second  mass  has  already  begun,"  he  said.  "But 
there  is  time.  Tell  Dofia  Juanita  and  Senorita  Ventura  to 
endure  their  fast  in  patience  and  with  fortitude.  Before 
noon  I  shall  arrange  a  mass  for  them.  Be  ready  to  escort 
them,  you  shall  have  ample  warning.  Let  them  attend 
garbed  precisely  as  before,  except  in  one  particular.  I  am 
absolute,  supreme,  all-powerful.  But  there  are  limits  to  my 
power.  I  can  order  a  mass  at  any  time  before  noon,  but  I 
cannot  authorise  gold  combs  in  church.  I  can  decree  what 
I  please,  but  no  decree  of  mine  or  of  any  man  could  make 
gold  combs  respectable  in  Asuncion.  No  gold  combs!" 
And  he  added : 

"Go  with  G<xM" 


2jo  EL   SUPREMO 

CHAPTER   XXI 

SERVICE   BY   EDICT 

(i) 

AS  they  rounded  the  conspicuous  corner  of  the  Gov 
ernment  House,  they  encountered  Dr.  Parlett,  sober 
enough  to  have  all  his  wits  about  him,  but  sufficiently  mel 
low  to  be  feeling  humorous  and  to  think  it  clever  to  pre 
tend  to  be  more  intoxicated  than  he  was.  He  placed  him 
self  squarely  in  their  way,  planted  his  feet  wide  apart  and 
swayed  drunkenly,  a  trifle  too  drunkenly. 

Don  Gregorio  and  Don  Manuel,  with  greetings  urbane 
but  brief,  steered  round  him,  but  Hawthorne  went  up  to 
him,  explaining  to  his  two  receding  companions : 

"You  have  no  more  need  of  me  now." 

They  expressed  their  thanks  repeatedly  and  went  their 
way. 

Hawthorne  was  really  glad  to  meet  Parlett.  Francia 
had  called  to  him  an  after-thought  invitation  to  remain, 
which  he  had  evaded  out  of  consideration  for  his  fellow- 
petitioners  and  an  instinct  against  wearing  out  the  ca 
pricious  Dictator's  interest  in  him,  but  also  on  account  of 
his  own  interest  in  the  scenes  he  had  had  a  glimpse  of  in 
the  Plaza  as  they  had  traversed  it  on  their  way  to  the 
Palacio.  Here  was  an  excellent  chance  to  survey  them  with 
an  entirely  competent  guide. 

The  little  surgeon  winked  elaborately  and  remarked 
muzzily : 

<fToo  sober  to  shtop  an'  talk  to  a  feller.  Bad  thing,  be 
too  sober  on  Sunday.  I'm  not  too  sober,  jus'  sober  'nough. 
That's  where  I'm  different  from  a  Payagua  Indian.  Pay 
agua  Indians  get  drunk  on  St.  John's  day,  take  two  days 
to  sober  up,  stay  sober  till  next  St.  John 's  day :  I  stay  sober 
on  St.  John's  day,  get  half  drunk  before  mornin'',  keep 
half  drunk  till  nex '  St.  John 's  day.  Le  's  go  look  for  some 
Payagua  Indians.  They  're  sober  now  after  two  days. 
They  stan'  still  an*  keep  their  mouths  shut.  These  people 
mull  arorm'  an'  keep  their  mouths  goin'.  Hurts  my  head." 

He  indicated  by  a  comprehensive,  all-embracing  gesture 


SERVICE    BY    EDICT  271 

the  sound  of  chaffering  in  shrill  Guarani  that  filled  the 
Plaza. 

The  Plaza  sprawled  from  the  Cathedral  to  the  Palacio, 
an  ill-defined,  irregular  open  space  nearly  a  hundred  yards 
wide  and  more  than  three  hundred  yards  long.  A  narrow, 
shallow,  thorn-grown  gully  divided  it  into  two  unequal 
parts.  The  southeast  part,  near  the  Cathedral,  known  as 
the  Cathedral  Plaza,  was  somewhat  the  smaller  of  the  two. 
The  larger  portion,  northwestward  towards  the  Palacio, 
was  known  as  the  Market  Plaza  or  Market-Square.  All 
along  their  southwest  flank  away  from  the  river  they  were 
bounded  by  buildings:  the  Cathedral  Plaza  by  Calle  Com- 
ercio  with  the  continuous  corridor  of  its  row  of  shops  on 
its  other  side,  the  Market  Plaza  proper  by  the  fronts  of 
the  hideous  Government  warehouses  and  the  front  of  the 
Cabildo.  On  the  north  and  east  side  of  the  Cathedral 
Plaza  no  buildings  stocd  except  a  few  small  warehouses, 
scattered  and  straggling.  The  river  side  of  the  Market 
Square  was  partly  taken  up  by  the  infantry  and  cavalry 
barracks  under  which  were  the  dungeons,  and  by  the  cav 
alry  stables. 

The  entire  open  space  where  now  are  the  radiating  walks, 
neat  grass  plots  and  trim  shrubberies  of  the  "Plaza  de 
Armas"  was  then  an  uneven,  hillocky  expanse  of  utterly 
uncared-for  ground,  with  puddles  or  dust  between  the  hil 
locks,  according  to  the  weather. 

Hawthorne  saw  it  fairly  hidden  by  a  motley  assemblage 
of  dingy,  round-hatted,  ponchoed  peons,  bareheaded  women 
of  the  populace  in  immaculate  white  tupois,  ladies  con 
cealed  under  amplitudes  of  rebozo  and  bayetilla  and  gentry* 
under  plumed  cocked-hats  in  gorgeous,  gaudy  silks,  vel 
vets  or  satins  of  every  conceivable  hue,  every  gentleman 
wearing  a  court-sword,  rapier,  or  sabre. 

There  was  not  a  stall,  awning,  chair  or  stool  anywhere 
in  the  market.  The  sellers,  five  out  of  every  six  women, 
squatted  on  the  ground ;  in  front  of  each  a  mat,  flat-basket 
or  hide-tray.  Venders  and  vendibles  were  arranged  roughly 
in  rows  more  or  less  straight,  leaving  just  enough  room  be 
tween  for  the  passage  of  the  purchasers  and  idlers. 

Along  the  front  of  the  warehouses  were  town-dealers  too 
insignificant  to  have  shops  of  their  own,  appealing  mostly 
to  the  trade  of  the  market-people  themselves  and  the  influx 


272  EL   SUPREMO 

from  the  country-side,  and  showing  saddles  displayed  on 
racks,  ponchos,  water-jars,  pots  and  pans,  rope,  hatchets, 
knives,  combs,  looking-glasses,  and  other  such  merchandise. 
But  almost  all  the  rest  of  the  market  space  was  taken  up 
with  eatables. 

Along  the  space  by  Calle  Comercio  were  drawn  up  the 
butchers'  carts  and  wagons,  straw- thatched  and  filled  pell- 
mell  with  lean,  stringy  beef,  cut  up  without  any  approach 
to  uniformity,  or  any  regard  to  the  structure  of  the  slaugh 
tered  animals. 

The  hardware  dealers  and  butchers  were  mostly  men, 
lounging  about  and  far  less  interesting  to  Hawthorne  than 
the  squatting  women,  before  whom  he  observed  jars  of 
rum,  of  the  local  wine,  of  chichd  beer,  of  molasses  and  of 
honey,  and  canisters  of  salt;  and  on  whose  hide-trays, 
flat  baskets  and  mats  he  saw  lambs,  sucking  pigs,  fowls, 
pigeons,  partridges,  wild  ducks,  squabs,  and  various  sorts  of 
little  birds,  all  snared  and  offered  for  sale  alive ;  eggs,  chipd 
bread,  some  of  manioc,  some  of  Indian  corn;  Indian  corn- 
meal,  Indian  corn  dried,  ears  of  green  Indian  corn;  bun 
dles  of  rhubarb  stalks,  of  sarsaparilla,  of  fresh  manioc ;  va 
rious  kinds  of  beans,  melons,  figs,  bananas;  pineapples  in 
abundance;  and  oranges,  oranges  everywhere. 

Candles  ma'de  of  quabird  wax  or  bees'  wax  or  of  tallow 
were  a  favourite  form  of  merchandise.  Many  had  flowers 
for  sale,  many  others  pies  and  pastry,  some  had  sweet  cakes, 
some  peppers,  garlic  and  onions. 

Also  there  were  bundles  of  firewood,  packs  of  charcoal, 
packages  of  raw  cotton,  packets  of  raw  sugar  and  parcels 
of  tobacco. 

But  always  oranges,  oranges  in  heaps,  piles  and  mounds. 

Hawthorne  commented  on  their  profusion. 

Parlett,  his  pretence  of  being  more  nearly  drunk  than 
he  really  was  already  forgotten,  assented,  continuing  in 
his  natural  voice : 

"You  can  always  buy  five  for  a  maravedi,  which  is  four 
for  a  farthing :  in  the  season  I  have  bought  twenty-five  for 
a  maravedi.  How  it  pays  anybody  to  pick  them  and  carry 
them  to  town,  I  can  never  conjecture." 

1 '  How  do  they  bring  them  in  ? "  Hawthorne  queried. 

"A  few,"  Parlett  replied,  "who  are  looked  upon  by  the 
others  as  almost  wealthy,  drive  in  from  even  four  leagues 


SERVICE  BY  EDICT  273 

away  in  carts,  and  God  knows  how  their  horses  (and  some 
are  well  enough  off  to  own  horses),  or  their  mules,  ever  tug 
anything  on  wheels  four  leagues  or  five  through  the  heart 
breaking  sand  of  the  lanes  hereabouts.  Some  ride  horses 
or  mules,  and  drive  others  with  panniers;  more  walk  be 
side  their  two-panniered  horse  or  mule  or  donkey. " 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  reflected,  "I  saw  some  on  Thursday." 

"You  couldn't  help  it,"  the  surgeon  said.  "And  you 
met  more  afoot  with  their  merchandise  on  their  heads,  the 
way  most  of  these  brought  in  theirs. ' ' 

"Most  of  these  walked!"  Hawthorne  exclaimed. 

* '  They  did,  my  boy, ' '  Parlett  assured  him,  t  i  two  leagues, 
or  even  three  and  with  a  load  that  would  be  no  joke  for  a 
man's  back,  let  alone  for  a  woman's  head." 

Hawthorne  looked  round  at  those  small  heads,  with  their 
neatly  braided  black  hair,  the  broad,  serene  foreheads,  tiny 
ears,  brown  eyes,  straight  noses  and  narrow  rounded  chins. 
All  the  women,  old  as  well  as  young,  were  personable  and 
comely.  All  were  merry,  gay  and  smiling,  with  sparkling 
eyes,  animated  countenances,  and  frequent  peals  of  laugh 
ter  punctuated  their  perpetual  cross-fire  of  calls,  chaff  and 
chatter.  All  had  small  hands  and  feet,  very  clean,  every 
one  wore  a  spotless  white  cotton  tupoi,  emphasised  by  a 
belt  gaudy  with  embroidery  in  brilliant  greens,  reds  and 
blues  and  especially  glaring  yellows  and  pinks.  These 
belts  were  the  only  bit  of  colour  on  any  woman  anywhere. 

"If  they  tramp  so  far,"  Hawthorne  queried,  "how  do 
they  keep  so  clean  ? ' ' 

"Not  one,"  said  Parlett,  "not  even  the  poorest,  but 
carries  a  fresh  tupoi  with  her.  Once  here  and  her  wares 
spread,  her  donkey  or  horse  or  mule,  if  she  has  one,  turned 
out  to  graze  or  browse,  if  he  can  find  forage,  she  leaves  her 
vendibles  im  charge  of  some  chance  neighbour,  whose  only 
care  is  to  keep  away  stray  dogs  or  other  beasts,  for  no  Par 
aguayan  ever  steals  anything.  Off  she  goes  to  the  river  side, 
there  she  bathes  her  feet.  If  the  day  is  hot,  off  comes  her 
belt  and  she  plunges  in  for  a  swim;  they  all  can  swim. 
After  her  swim  or  her  foot-bath,  she  dries  her  feet,  slips 
her  clean  tupoi  over  her  head,  drops  her  dusty  or  soaked 
tupoi  to  the  ground,  belts  her  fresh  gown,  picks  up  her 
discarded  garment,  and  comes  back  here,  clean-ankled  and 
fresh  from  top  to  toe,  as  you  see  them  all." 


274  EL   SUPREMO 

" Clean  as  the  buyers/'  Hawthorne  commented. 

1 '  But  no  cleaner, ' '  Parlett  added.  ' '  Cleanliness  is  a  na 
tional  virtue,  especially  among  the  women. ' ' 

Hawthorne,  continuing  his  survey,  remarked : 

"I  should  guess  there  are  five  hundred  market  women 
here." 

"More  like  six  hundred  to-day,"  Parlett  corrected  him. 
"On  week  days  there  are  seldom  over  four  hundred,  and 
often  fewer.  But  Sunday  market  is  the  chief  social  event 
of  the  week  for  the  lower  classes  of  the  population,  and 
not  the  least  for  the  gentry.  On  week  days  it  begins  soon 
after  sunrise  and  is  all  over  before  the  day  is  warm;  on 
Sunday  it  begins  after  the  first  mass  and  lasts  until  the 
heat  absolutely  drives  the  last  loafer  to  shelter. 

"Everybody  comes  to  buy,  or  lingers  to  talk.  It's  fash 
ionable  to  be  seen  here,  a  sort  of  out-of-doors  reception. 
The  common  folk  do  their  haggling  while  seeing  their 
friends;  the  rich  see  their  friends  and  overlook  their  serv 
ants  selecting,  chaffering  and  purchasing.  All  the  wealth 
and  fashion  of  Asuncion  are  here,  all  your  fellow-guests  at 
Comadre  Juana's,  all  who  thought  they  should  have  been 
invited  there,  all  who  were  sorry  they  were  not  exalted 
enough  to  be  invited;  except  those  who  are  now  in  at  the 
second  mass.  And  they  are  all  talking  at  once.  It  hurts 
my  head,  I  tell  you.  Let's  get  closer  to  the  Payagua  In 
dians,  and  let's  have  a  drink.  I'm  dry.  Native  wine  is 
not  as  good  as  Jenofonte's  Mendoza  vintages,  but  it's  a  lot 
better  than  nothing.  You  won 't  ?  Well,  I  will. ' ' 

And  the  little  surgeon  drained  a  generous  draft  out  of 
an  earthenware  jar. 

Along  the  river  side  of  the  Plaza,  from  the  Cathedral  to 
the  cavalry  stables,  interrupted  only  at  the  thorny  gully, 
the  Payagua  Indians  fringed  the  assemblage.  They  were 
big  men,  well-made  and  athletic,  barefoot,  bare-legged  and 
clad  only  in  a  sort  of  kilt,  leaving  them  naked  from  the 
waist  up,  except  for  necklaces  of  silver  beads,  rings  and 
tubes.  In  their  ears  they  wore  great  pieces  of  wood  or 
bone  as  big  as  a  large  man's  wrist  or  even  bigger,  distend 
ing  the  lobe  of  the  ear  till  it  formed  a  mere  strap  of  flesh 
round  the  ornamental  disk. 

Some  had  their  women  with  them  naked  from  the  waist 
up  like  the  men,  except  that  a  few  had  ponchos,  embroid- 


SERVICE   BY   EDICT  275 

ered  with  patterns  in  gaudy  beads  and  silver  tubes.  EacH 
wore  skewered  through  her  lower  lip  a  big-headed,  long- 
stemmed  silver  bodkin,  its  point  depending  to  her  breast 
bone. 

Most  of  the  women  merely  stood  or  squatted  about,  but 
some  offered  for  sale  parrots:  tiny  green  parroquets,  the 
size  of  a  wren,  vivacious  and  sagacious  little  birds,  con 
stantly  imitating  the  louder- voiced  of  the  bystanders;  the 
green  and  yellow  parrots  common  all  over  Paraguay;  the 
rarer  red  and  blue  parrots,  like  macaws;  but  mostly  com 
mon  Paraguayan  parrots  dyed  and  tinged  till  they  were 
red,  green,  yellow  and  blue  all  at  the  same  time. 

Of  the  big,  self-confident  men,  some  had  for  sale  bundles 
of  coarse  chala  grass  cut  from  the  Gran  Chaco  across  the 
river,  ferried  over  in  their  canoes  and  sold  at  a  maravedi 
a  bundle. 

Others,  and  a  great  majority  of  them,  had  fish  for  sale, 
magnificent  fish,  pendant  from  their  long  canoe-paddles. 
There  were  red-scaled  snappers,  pacu,  mullets,  dorados, 
turbots,  rainbow-hued  parrot  fish,  tuna,  others  that  Haw 
thorne  had  also  eaten  coming  up  the  river,  and  yet  others 
unknown  to  him. 

His  long  draft  of  native  wine  had  made  Parlett,  by 
this  time,  almost  as  drunk  as  he  had  at  first  pretended  to 
be.  He  now  really  swayed  on  his  feet  and  hyperbolised 
with  much  enjoyment  of  his  own  wit : 

"Payagua  Indian  rather  run  than  walk,  rather  walk 
than  stand,  rather  stand  than  sit  down.  Strong  enough  to 
stand  all  day  from  sunrise  till  sunset  an'  carry  over  each 
shoulder  a  nine-foot  paddle  festooned  from  one  end  to  the 
other  with  fish  a  yard  long.  Stan'  an'  hoi'  up  all  that  fish 
all  day  'f  he  don'  sell  it,  an'  never  tire  out.  Never  sit  down 
all  day  an'  never  tire  out.  Never  sit  down  all  day  an'  never 
open  his  mouth.  These  women  never  shut  their  mouths. 
"When  you're  'mongst  the  women,  think  you'd  like  Payagua 
Indians  better.  Get  'mongst  'em  an'  you  remember  you've 
a  nose.  Payaguas  'fend  your  nose  more  'an  chatterin'  an' 
gabblin'  women  hurt  your  head.  F'  my  part,  I  prefer 
cackle  in  Guarani  to  stink  fr'm  dumb  Payaguas. 

"Le's  go  back  'mongst  the  women." 

The  Payaguas,  in  fact,  seemed  no  more  a  part  of  the 
market-scene  than  the  butchers'  carts  on  the  other  side  of 


276  EL  SUPREMO 

the  square.     They  framed  it  in,  like  the  buildings  round 
about,  but  were  not  of  it. 

Itself  was,  as  Parlett  had  said,  an  out-of-door  reception, 
and  one  of  a  very  courtly  and  urbane  kind  for  all  its  com 
plete  informality  and  primitive  simplicity.  The  spontane 
ous  cheerfulness  and  light-hearted  gaiety  impressed  Haw 
thorne  most  of  all. 

(2) 

Before  the  congregation  began  to  stream  out  of  the 
Cathedral  from  the  second  mass,  the  lighthearted  gaiety 
of  the  market  gathering  was  more  than  a  little  clouded, 
at  least  among  the  gentry,  by  the  activity  they  observed 
suddenly  manifest  itself  at  the  barracks. 

Messengers  and  couriers  passed  back  and  forth  from  the 
Palacio  to  barracks,  and  barracks  to  Palacio,  squads  of 
soldiers  started  off  at  double-quick,  one  down  river  towards 
the  Dominican  Monastery  and  the  prison,  two  between 
the  Palacio  and  the  Cabildo  towards  the  Encarnacion 
Church  and  the  suburban  barracks,  one  up  Calle  Concep- 
cion  towards  the  Convent  of  the  Mercedarios,  two  past  the 
Cathedral,  towards  the  Franciscan  Monastery  and  the 
church  of  San  Roque. 

Squads  of  cavalry  rode  off  in  all  these  directions  and  yet 
in  others.  Orderlies  dashed  about,  horsemen  galloping 
all  round  the  plaza,  even  bursting  through  the  line  of 
butchers '  carts  into  Calle  Concepcion. 

The  people  in  the  Plaza  grew  visibly  uneasy,  at  least  all 
the  gentry  were  plainly  doing  their  best  to  seem  gay  and 
show  no  anxiety.  When,  just  after  the  last  loiterers  of 
the  congregation  had  left  the  Cathedral,  the  throng  in  the 
square  was  at  its  flood  tide,  anxiety,  even  consternation 
became  general;  for  behold,  from  behind  the  Cathedral 
reappeared  Captain  Fulano  Garmendia  and  his  eight  gren 
adiers,  now  not  galloping,  but  riding  at  a  slow  walk.  The 
reason  for  their  deliberation  was  at  once  manifest.  They 
were  convoying  a  fat  bay  mare,  whose  rider  wore  eccle 
siastical  garb  and  held  over  himself  a  big  brown  sunshade. 

As  the  awful  spectacle  of  a  priest  under  arrest  caught 
the  attention,  first  of  part  and  then  of  more  of  the  crowd, 
a  hush  spread  over  the  square.  At  first  the  gazers  descried 


SERVICE   BY   EDICT  277 

only  the  broad  umbrella,  the  shovel  hat,  and  the  friar's 
habit :  then  the  nearest  recognised  the  Vicar-General  Padre 
Don  Fray  Damaso  Montiel  himself.  At  once  they  knelt 
and  begged  his  blessing,  the  women  with  streaming  eyes. 
Before  he  had  crossed  the  Cathedral  plaza  every  human 
being,  save  the  heathen  Payaguas,  was  kneeling. 

Fray  Damaso  repeatedly  blessed  the  bowed  throng,  smil 
ing  and  calling  out  again  and  again : 

"I  am  not  going  to  prison.  Do  not  be  uneasy.  I  am 
merely  summoned  to  an  urgent  conference.  You  will  see 
me  return  shortly.  You  will  see  all  the  Priors  pass  to  join 
me  at  the  Palacio.  Do  not  be  alarmed.  We  shall  all  come 
back  within  an  hour." 

In  fact  the  Priors  did  traverse  the  square  at  intervals, 
each  on  horseback  under  his  umbrella,  each  convoyed  by 
a  captain  or  lieutenant  and  eight  dragoons. 

The  first  to  appear  was  the  tall,  spare,  dignified  Prior 
of  the  Mercedarios,  Don  Fray  Hermengildo  Canete.  He 
nad  not  been  at  Itapua,  nor  had  any  of  his  few  brethren, 
as  their  austerity  scorned  feastings  and  revelries.  He  was 
a  stern-faced  old  man,  very  erect  and  almost  regal  in  his 
impressive  garb,  an  ample  gown  of  white  wool,  girded  at 
the  waist  with  a  plain  leatKer  belt;  on  the  left  breast  the 
gorgeous  arms  of  the  Cathedral  of  Barcelona,  the  complete 
Eoyal  arms  of  Aragon,  surmounted  by  a  silver  cross  on  a 
crimson  field. 

After  him  came  the  Franciscan  Prior  looking  scared  and 
grey. 

Not  far  behind  him  the  Dictator's  uncle,  Don  Fray  Mel- 
quiades  Caballero. 

Later  the  parish  priest  of  San  Eoque. 

Last,  Fray  Procopio  Baca,  Prior  of  the  Recoletanos,  from 
their  suburban  monastery. 

Each  reassured  the  populace  as  had  the  Vicar-General, 
but  the  women,  though  their  weeping  had  ceased,  chattered 
excitedly.  The  men  talked  in  whispers,  much  perturbed 
and  greatly  subdued. 

The  tension  burst  into  wild  rejoicings  when  the  eccle 
siastics  reappeared,  after  not  a  long  detention  in  the  Pala 
cio,  all  now  without  their  grim  convoys,  and  trotted  briskly 
each  his  way,  showering  blessings  in  all  directions  as 
they  passed. 


278  EL   SUPREMO 

Scarcely  had  the  last  vanished  and  hardly  had  the  mar 
ket  renewed  its  suspended  chattering,  chaffering  and  cir 
culating,  when  the  sound  of  fifes  and  drums  rose  above 
the  hubbub  and  quieted  it  as  the  crowd  stood  silent  to 
listen. 

From  the  direction  of  the  Palacio  appeared  a  tall  white 
plume  fluttering  above  a  huge  cocked  hat,  under  it  the  face 
of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Don  Gumesindo  Estagarribia  ; 
his  crimson  capote  fluttering  behind  him,  his  white  lace 
shirt-frill  billowing  before,  his  blue  coat  buttoned  tight. 
He  sat  aloft  on  a  tall,  cream-coloured  horse,  a  long  parch 
ment  in  his  hand.  Before  him  tramped  and  plied  their 
instruments  a  drummer  and  two  fif ers ;  behind  him  as  many 
more. 

Into  the. midst  of  the  throng  he  advanced  pompously,  his 
gentlemanly  stallion  stepping  daintily  among  the  squatting 
women  and  crowded  trays,  never  treading  on  or  jostling 
any. 

Upon  a  hillock  he  took  his  stand  and  read  aloud  the 
decree  in  his  stentorian  voice: 

"By  this  bando,"  he  roared,  "by  this  edict,  by  this  enact 
ment,  by  this  proclamation,  by  this  announcement,  by  this 
promulgation,  it  is  published,  heralded,  blazoned,  and  ad 
vertised  that  on  this  day,  Sunday,  June  27th,  of  the  year 
of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  sixteen,  there  will  be 
a  third  mass  at  the  Cathedral,  commencing,  that  is  to  say, 
beginning,  a  half  hour  before  noon.  Take  notice  all  ye  that 
hear  me,  take  notice.  It  is  enjoined,  ordained,  decreed, 
prescribed,  commanded,  directed,  suggested,  in  short,  re 
quired,  that  every  gentleman  of  Asuncion  shall  attend,  that 
is  to  say  assist  at,  in  short,  be  present  at  this  third  masa 
hereby  announced,  and  shall  bring  to  it  all  his  kinsfolk, 
that  is  to  say,  his  wife,  children,  parents  and  any  and  ali 
brothers,  sisters,  uncles,  aunts  or  other  relations  residing, 
dwelling  or  abiding,  in  short  living  at  his  house  or  mansion, 
in  a  word,  his  family.  None  shall  be  left  at  home,  save  only 
the  sick,  under  penalty  of  the  severe  displeasure  of  our 
supreme  Dictator.  The  attendance,  that  is  to  say  the  pres 
ence,  of  labourers,  servants,  market-folk  and  other  such 
will  be  permitted,  but  is  not  ordered,  that  is  to  say,  is  not 
obligatory,  or  in  other  words  is  left  to  their  own  discre 
tion.  Men  wearing  jackets  or  ponchos,  men  commonly  so 


SERVICE   BY   EDICT  279 

habited,  may  absent  themselves  from  this  third  mass  if 
they  please,  or  hear  it  if  they  prefer. 

'  *  But  if  any  gentleman,  any  hidalgo,  any  man  commonly 
wearing  a  coat,  any  hombre  de  casaca,  any  patrician  habit 
ually  girt  with  a  sword,  in  other  words,  any  person  of 
fashion,  wealth  or  position,  in  short  any  man  of  means,  that 
is  to  say,  any  grandee,  absents  himself  from  this  mass  un 
less  too  ill  to  walk  from  his  house  to  the  Cathedral,  he 
shall  be  arrested  promptly  and  speedily  shot,  without 
reprieve  or  mercy,  and  all  his  property  shall,  without  re 
serve  or  exception,  be  confiscated  to  the  State  exchequer. 

"Hear,  listen,  hearken  and  attend  and  communicate  this 
edict  to  all  your  friends,  relations  and  acquaintances,  lest 
they  come  under  its  penalties  by  failing  to  obey  it. ' ' 

After  this  reading  he  made  his  way  out  of  the  throng 
and  Plaza,  to  repeat  the  proclamation  elsewhere.  After  he 
tad  vanished  up  Calle  Concepcion  the  h,ush  in  the  square 
changed  to  a  faint  buzz  of  talk,  which  rapidly  augmented 
into  a  hubbub  of  excited  palaver. 

Not  long  after  the  sounds  of  the  drums  and  fifes  were 
lost  in  the  distance,  some  of  the  crowd  closest  to  the 
Cathedral  observed  Padre  Lisardo  Bogarin,  without  his 
sabre,  and  convoyed  by  a  squad  of  soldiers,  enter  the 
Cathedral  parsonage. 


(3) 

The  conference  in  the  Palacio  had  been  very  little  to 
the  taste  of  any  of  the  clergymen  and  friars  bidden  to  it, 
and  least  of  all  to  that  of  Vicar-General  Montiel. 

He  and  the  others  as  they  came  one  by  one  were  kept 
Waiting  in  the  outer  courtyard  until  Padre  Procopio  Baca, 
the  last  comer,  had  arrived. 

Then  and  not  till  then  did  Francia  enter  from  the  othe? 
court,  fresh  shaved,  his  hair  powdered  and  gathered  into  a 
queue,  wearing  the  blue  uniform  coat  of  a  Spanish  General, 
with  buff-facings,  white  cord  breeches,  white  stockings, 
low  shoes,  and  a  long  grandee's  rapier. 

He  greeted  the  ecclesiastics  curtly,  seated  himself  in  his 
official  chair,  and  bade  tli3m  be  reseated. 

Then  he  began,  using  no  form  of  address  usual  towards 


28o  EL    SUPREMO 

the  clergy  from  pious  Spaniards,  but  speaking  as  if  to 
laymen : 

' l  Gentlemen,  I  have  summoned  you  here  to  listen  and  be 
witnesses  to  some  questions  I  have  to  put  to  Padre  Damaso, 
and  to  his  replies. ' ' 

He  fixed  Montiel  with  a  keen  gaze  and  spoke  again: 

' '  It  has  been  told  me  that  two  ladies  were  to-day  expelled 
from  the  Cathedral  during  the  first  mass,  denied  the  right 
to  hear  it,  and  refused  the  eucharist.  Is  this  true  ? ' ' 

"It  is,"  the  Vicar-General  replied  without  hesitation. 

"Why  was  this  done?"  Francia  queried  sharply. 

"They  were  not  becomingly  attired  for  the  interior 
of  a  sacred  edifice,"  Padre  Damaso  replied,  "nor  for  the 
solemnity  of  a  mass." 

"In  what  did  the  impropriety  of  their  attire  consist?" 
the  Dictator  pursued. 

Pai  Montiel  reflected. 

"Come,  come!"  Francia  rapped  out  sharply.  "Speak 
up." 

But  the  Vicar-General  was  wrestling  in  spirit  with  the 
technicalities  of  female  attire.  He  spoke,  after  a  further 
interval : 

"They  were  without  rebozos,  were  not  garbed  in  "baye- 
tilla,  but  in  gay  stuffs,  with  much  lace,  suitable  for  a  ter- 
tulia  or  fiesta,  not  for  worship.  They  wore  white  gloves  and 
carried  fans.  Likewise  they  wore,  apparently,  confining 
bodices  of  some  sort,  making  their  waists  resemble  the  mid 
dles  of  wasps. 

"Moreover,  in  their  hair  were  displayed  gold  combs." 

* '  And  because  of  their  attire, ' '  Francia  uttered  with  pre 
cision,  "they  were  refused  the  eucharist,  denied  participa 
tion  in  the  mass  and  expelled  from  the  Cathedral. ' ' 

Pai  Damaso  inclined  his  head. 

"They  were,"  he  stated,  "and  for  that  reason." 

"Don  Hermengildo,"  Francia  said,  "you  have  been  in 
Buenos  Aires,  Montevideo,  Cadiz,  Madrid,  Barcelona,  ami, 
Borne.  Is  it  not  so?" 

"I  have  been  in  all  these  cities,"  the  Mercedario  re 
plied. 

"Would  a  lady  dressed  as  Padre  Damaso  has  described 
be  refused  entrance  into  a  church  in  any  of  those  cities  ? ' ' 

"In  none,"  Padre  Caiiete  responded  instantly. 


SERVICE   BY   EDICT  281 

"You  hear!"  Francia  shot  at  the  Vicar-General. 

"I  hear,"  Montiel  replied,  with  some  spirit,  "but  what 
is  done  in  other  cities  has  no  weight  here.  It  is  the  custom 
here  for  ladies  to  wear  'bayetilla  to  mass  and  to  cover  their 
heads  with  rebozos.  The  startling  garments  of  these  new 
arrivals  gave  scandal.  It  is  my  duty  to  suppress  anything 
that  mars  the  devotion  of  the  worshippers  at  mass.  I  acted 
as  I  must,  for  such  matters  lie  within  my  discretion,  I  being 
the  head  of  the  Church  in  the  absence  of  the  Bishop." 

Francia  swelled  like  an  angry  turkey  cock  and  glared  at 
Montiel. 

"The  Bishop,"  he  hissed,  "is  a  gentleman,  a  travelled 
patrician,  a  cultured  cosmopolite.  He  would  never  have 
disgraced  Asuncion  with  such  a  barbarity  or  himself  with 
such  a  blunder.  In  his  absence  matters  go  wrong,  being 
left  to  your  indiscretion.  You  are  an  ignorant  clodhopper, 
a  stupid  rustic,  a  boor,  a  brute. 

"You,  the  head  of  the  Church! 

"Know,  bribon,  that  be  the  Bishop  absent  or  present, 
I  am  the  head  of  the  Church,  as  of  all  institutions  in 
Paraguay." 

A  shudder  visibly  quivered  through  the  assemblage. 

* '  I  speak  the  truth ! ' '  Francia  shrilled.  ' ( I  am  supreme. 
Paraguay  is  independent.  She  owes  no  more  allegiance  to 
the  Pope  of  Borne  than  to  the  King  of  Spain.  I  replace 
both." 

Horror  was  painted  upon  every  face  among  his  auditors. 

'  *  I  utter  the  law, ' '  said  Francia  sternly.  * '  Let  him  who 
dares,  disobey  me;  he  disobeys  at  his  peril,  layman  or 
cleric. ' ' 

"What  are  your  commands?"  Padre  Canete  queried 
coolly. 

"That  a  third  mass  be  celebrated  this  very  day,  a  high 
mass,  a  grand  high  mass,"  Francia  dictated.  "That  all 
the  gentry  of  the  place  be  bidden  to  it  as  witnesses  of  the 
reparation  made  to  these  ladies,  that  they  attend  attired  as 
they  were  when  expelled  from  the  Cathedral,  that  they 
receive  communion  before  all  the  congregation,  so  at- 
tired." 

There  was  an  astounded  silence. 

Don  Melquiades  Caballero  was  the  first  to  speak: 

"Nephew,"  he  said,  "do  you  seriously  mean  to  defile 


282  EL   SUPREMO 

God's  temple  by  the  presence  of  women  wearing  gold 
combs?" 

"One  of  the  two  ladies,"  Francia  said,  "is  a  Monte- 
videana,  daughter  of  a  brave  French  officer  who  lost  his 
life  gloriously  in  the  course  of  his  duty  while  serving  Mon 
tevideo.  Her  mother  was  a  Montevideana,  of  excellent 
family.  She  is  the  wife  of  Don  Manuel  Bianquet  of  Monte 
video,  domiciled  here  at  Asuncion  now  these  two  years  as 
a  merchant. 

"The  other  lady  is  Senorita  Velarde,  eldest  daughter  of 
Don  Toribio  of  San  Bernardino.  She  has  been  absent  from 
Paraguay  now  for  eight  years,  most  of  which  she  spent  in 
Spain. 

"These  two  ladies,  you  perceive,  are  not  such  women 
as  flaunt  gold  combs  through  the  streets  of  Asuncion.  Both 
are  habituated  to  the  customs  of  more  polished  communi 
ties;  neither  knew  anything  of  our  local  idiosyncrasies; 
the  one  because  she  had  arrived  here  but  a  few  days  ago, 
the  other  because  she  left  here  while  a  mere  child.  Had 
Bishop  de  Panes  been  in  the  Cathedral  one  glance  at  the 
ladies  would  have  enlightened  him  fully  as  to  the  situation. 
At  first  sight  of  their  faces  he  would  have  appraised  them 
at  their  true  worth  and  understood  and  sympathised.  He 
would  have  sent  them  an  unobtrusive  message  to  remove 
and  conceal  their  combs.  He  might  then  have  spoken  to 
the  agitated  natives  a  few  words  to  explain  the  marvel  and 
tranquillise  their  dismay.  He  would  not  have  mismanaged. 

"As  for  the  rest  of  their  attire,  is  there  anything  un- 
canonical  in  stays,  gloves,  fans  or  lace?  I  ask  you,  my 
uncle,  and  you  Don  Hermengildo  ? '  ' 

"Nothing  uncanonical, "  both  replied. 

"Rebozos  and  bayettila,"  Francia  clinched  his  argument, 
"are  customary  for  the  gentry.  But  since  all  women  of 
the  populace  hear  mass  in  their  tupois,  with  only  their 
manias  over  their  heads,  there  is  evidently  no  compulsion 
upon  any  woman  to  wear  bayetilla  or  a  rebozo." 

The  clergymen  were  silenced. 

"But,"  presently  spoke  up  Padre  Ignacio  Maestre, 
"these  ladies  have  undoubtedly  broken  their  fast  and  may 
not  communicate  until  to-morrow." 

Francia,  with  few  words,  enlightened  the  Dominican 
Prior. 


SERVICE   BY   EDICT  283 

"But,"  interjected  Padre  Procopio  Baca,  "your  Excel 
lency  forgets  that  there  is  no  priest  in  Asuncion  who  has 
not,  by  this  hour,  either  broken  his  fast  or  nearly  finished 
his  second  mass." 

"I  made  quite  sure  that  there  is  one,"  Francia  smiled. 
"Padre  Bogarin  never  goes  to  bed  betimes  and  never  gets 
up  betimes.  I  have  sent  a  guard  to  make  doubly  ^sure 
that  he  is  fasting,  and,  as  you  all  know,  he  has  officiated 
at  no  mass  for  many  a  Sunday."  - 

They  still  sat  silent. 

Francia  burst  out: 

"Away  with  difficulties!  There  are  none.  I  have  an 
swered  all  possible  objections,  have  stooped  to  explain  and 
to  argue.  Now  hear  my  orders.  I  am  absolute  in  Para 
guay,  in  civil,  military  and  sacred  affairs.  I  decree  a 
third  mass.  Padre  Lisardo  will  celebrate  it.  Choose  who 
shall  be  deacon,  who  sub-deacon.  I  suggest  you,  my  good 
uncle,  and  Don  Hermengildo,  as  most  respected  by  all,  as 
likely  to  give  most  significance  to  the  public  reparation  ^  I 
insist  upon.  See  to  it  that  every  priest,  monk  and  friar  in 
Asuncion  attends  in  some  capacity.  Beware  of  rousing  me  I 
I  have  a  mitigated  respect  for  your  cloth  and  I  compre 
hend  your  value  as  part  of  our  community,  but  I  am 
capable  of  sending  every  one  of  you  to  the  lanquillo  if  you 
thwart  me.  Eemember  this  is  no  matter  of  conscience,  no 
contravention  of  your  vows  I  ask.  I  order  mere  decent 
reparation  for  a  silly  muddle.  I  speak  plain  common- 
sense.  Your  Bishop  would  smile  at  your  blunder,  your 
Pope  would  laugh.  There  is  no  pretext  for  making  your 
selves  out  martyrs. 

"Do  you  consent?" 

Each  looked  at  the  others. 

Padre  Hermengildo  spoke  first. 

"As  the  authority  of  the  Bishop  and  the  authority  of 
the  Pope  are  both  impugned,"  he  said,  "it  seems  to  me 
that  it  is  our  duty  to  refuse  on  principle." 

Padre  Melquiades  nodded. 

"Theoretically,"  he  agreed,  "I  am  of  the  like  opinion." 

"You  have  uttered  the  words  ' theoretically '  and  'on 
principle'  in  your  replies,"  Francia  said  silkily,  "the  word 
'but'  you  have  not  uttered,  yet  I  seemed  to  hear  eacfc 
of  you  about  to  utter  it." 


284  EL   SUPREMO 

"I  will  supply  the  omission,"  Padre  Ignacio  continued. 
""Theory  and  principle  are  all  very  well,  but  practically, 
considering  the  circumstances  that  confront  us,  we  had 
best  consent." 

"In  addition  to  which,"  spoke  Padre  Santiago  Keloyos, 
Prior  of  the  Franciscans,  "El  Supremo  appears  to  be 
almost,  if  not  completely,  in  the  right. ' ' 

"Do  you  then  consent?"  Francia  snapped. 

"I  consent,"  Padre  Montiel  sighed. 

Francia  rose. 

"At  a  half  hour  before  noon,"  he  said,  "let  the  mass 
begin." 

And  he  added: 

"I  shall  attend  and  be  present!" 

At  these  last  words  every  one  of  his  auditors  looked  ten 
times  more  thunderstruck  than  before. 


(4) 

At  eleven  o'clock  the  Cathedral  bell  commenced  to  ring 
its  loudest.  The  crowd  from  the  Plaza  shortly  began  to 
move  in  the  direction  of  the  Cathedral  porch.  From  all 
the  streets  leading  towards  the  Cathedral  came  more  gen 
try,  ladies  swathed  in  black  and  gentlemen  in  red,  yellow, 
green,  blue  and  purple  silks,  satins  and  velvets.  All  the 
wealth  and  fashion  of  Asuncion  not  already  loitering  and 
gossiping  about  the  Plaza  flocked  into  it  or  directly  into 
the  Cathedral. 

Supported  on  either  side  by  a  mulatto  servant,  Don  Cris 
tobal  de  Maria  came,  walking  feebly,  but  clean,  handsomely 
attired  in  plum-coloured  velvet  and  looking  both  well  and 
happy. 

Dona  Juana  Isquibel  and  her  handsome  grandson,  hav 
ing  attended  the  second  mass,  were  already  in  the  Plaza. 

Besides  the  gentry  came  from  all  directions  swarms  of 
women  in  tup&is,  and  their  ponchoed  menfolk. 

For,  as  Don  Gumesindo,  with  his  fifers  and  drummers, 
passed  from  street  to  street,  far  faster  than  he  moved,  ran 
about  him  and  before  him  among  all  the  populace,  among 
the  Guaranies  who  loved  and  worshipped  Francia,  the 
wild  rumour  that  El  Supremo  had  experienced  a  change  nf 


SERVICE   BY   EDICT  285 

heart,  that  his  only  fault  was  about  to  become  a  thing  of 
the  past,  that  the  Carai  had  been  reconciled  to  religion 
and  was  about  to  attend  mass,  that  the  bando  signalised 
this  marvel. 

How  this  rumour  originated  was  never  so  much  as  con 
jectured.  It  seemed  to  spring  up  among  the  commonalty 
in  all  quarters  of  the  city  at  once. 

Therefore,  before  mass  began,  the  Cathedral  was  packed 
and  a  crush  of  peasantry  stood  close  all  about  it. 

They  saw  El  Supremo  appear  on  horseback  from  the 
direction  of  the  Paiacio,  traverse  the  length  of  the  Plaza 
at  a  slow  walk,  and  dismount  at  the  Cathedral  entrance. 
They  saw  him  stand  there  in  talk  with  Dona  Juana  Isqui- 
bel  and  Don  Beltran  Jaray. 

They  saw  emerge  from  Calle  Concepcion,  Don  Gregorio 
de  la  Cerda,  magnificent  in  his  drab  coat,  Senorita  Ven 
tura  Velarde  on  his  arm,  behind  them  Don  Manuel  and  his 
wife.  Dona  Juanita  wore  a  jet  comb  in  her  hair  and 
Ventura  one  of  carved  tortoise  shell,  otherwise  their  garb 
was  unaltered. 

As  they  approached  the  porch,  all  onlookers  saw  the 
Dictator  step  forward,  greet  them,  offer  his  arm  to  Ven 
tura,  saw  her  blush  as  she  took  it,  saw  Don  Gregorio  offer 
his  arm  to  Comadre  Juana,  saw  the  two  fall  in  behind 
Francia  and  Ventura,  saw  Don  Manuel  and  his  wife  fall 
in  behind  them,  saw  the  procession  of  six  sweep  into  church. 

All  who  could  squeeze  into  the  Cathedral  followed,  until 
it  was  jammed  as  never  before. 

Inside,  Hawthorne,  who  had  entered  betimes,  beheld  the 
same  subdivision  as  at  the  first  mass  into  four  areas  of 
colour:  dingy  ponchos  and  dim  tupois  near  the  doors, 
sombre  rebozos  and  gaudy  court-costumes  towards  the 
altar. 

The  tarimas,  save  two  only,  had  been  pushed  to  the  wall. 
Like  their  inferiors,  the  civil  dignitaries,  not  only  Don 
Basilio  and  Don  Olegario,  but  Don  Gumesindo  himself 
and  their  women  folk,  knelt  on  the  floor. 

But  the  two  remaining  tarimas  were  set  diagonally  fac 
ing  the  altar  and  also  facing  each  other,  near  the  altar  rail, 
and  close  to  the  middle  line  of  the  nave,  where  all  could 
see  them  clearly.  On  that  on  the  gospel  side,  above  which 
the  Madonna  smiled,  knelt  Ventura  between  Dona  Juana 


286  EL   SUPREMO 

Isquibel  and  Dona  Juanita  Bianquet:  on  the  other  knelt 
Francia,  between  Don  Gregorio  and  Don  Manuel. 

The  situation  was  plain  to  the  meanest  peon:  the  af 
fronted  ladies  were  accorded  full  atonement.  Don  Manuel 
knelt  on  the  second  tarima  as  sharing  in  the  wrong  done 
his  wife  and  in  the  amends  made :  the  others  stood  in  a  like 
relation  to  Ventura,  her  godmother  and  godfather,  of  course 
in  the  absence  of  her  father,  and,  manifestly,  El  Supremo 
himself. 

The  explanation  made  from  the  altar  at  the  proper  time 
In  the  mass  by  Vicar-General  Montiel  himself  and  also  by 
Padre  Herrnengildo,  was  wholly  superfluous  for  any  in 
formation  it  carried  to  any  auditor;  all  comprehended  be 
fore  it  was  spoken. 

Padre  Lisardo  had  carried  the  host  not  merely  to  the 
sanctuary  rail,  but  to  the  tarima  on  which  the  ladies  knelt. 

Both  before  and  after  communicating  Ventura  made  a 
very  pretty  picture,  demure,  full  of  genuine  piety,  happy 
in  her  rehabilitation  before  all  the  people;  but  now  and 
again  flushing  pink  at  the  conspicuousness  into  which  she 
iiad  been  forced,  and  full  crimson  at  her  juxtaposition  to 
the  Dictator. 

When  the  congregation  left  the  church  the  wild  rumour 
of  an  hour  before  was  wholly  dead.  Paraguayans  were  un 
cultured,  maybe,  but  human.  They  knew  that  they  had  to 
do  with  no  sudden  conversion  of  their  Dictator  to  religion. 
They  recognised  the  motive  that  had  brought  him  into 
church  for  the  first  time  since  his  return  from  Cordova. 

At  the  Cathedral  doors  Ventura  saw  among  the  crowd  a 
hot,  dusty  horseman  on  a  lathered  mount.  Under  their 
all-concealing  incrustation  one  could  hardly  perceive  the 
spirit  and  breeding  of  the  horse  or  the  magnificence  of 
his  rider's  equipment. 

Ventura  stared  at  the  frank,  handsome  face,  its  beauty 
not  a  whit  concealed  by  its  coat  of  dust  and  tan.  It 
seemed  familiar,  but  its  almost  boyish  youthfulness  was 
oddly  incongruous  with  the  silver  hair  that  floated  above  it 
in  the  fine  long  ringlets  of  a  foppish  gentleman. 

The  rider  gazed  at  her  but  once.  He  sprang  down  and 
«he  found  herself  in  the  arms  of  her  youngest  uncle,  Don 
Caipercio  Velarde  of  Atira. 

After  the  kisses  and  embraces  she  queried : 


RIDES   AND    PARTRIDGES         287, 

"Why  is  not  father  here?" 

"He  is  in  serious  anxiety,"  Don  Lupercio  answered 
gravely,  "concerning  the  health  of  your  stepmother." 

He  explained  that  he  himself  had  been  absent  at  Ma- 
numby. 

TV  hen,  next  morning,  Ventura  set  out  for  San  Bernar 
dino,  as  when  the  congregation  and  market  throng  dispersed 
together  after  the  third  mass,  there  was  but  one  chief  topic 
of  conversation  in  Asuncion,  from  the  toldos  of  the  Payagua 
Indians  to  the  mansions  of  the  Recaldes  and  Mayorgas  and 
the  rest  of  tbe  gentry,  and  that  was  the  probable  future 
influence  in  Paraguayan  affairs  of  Senorita  Ventura  Ve 
larde. 

CHAPTER  XXII 

BIDES  AND  PARTRIDGES 

(i) 

SUNDAY  evening  was  mostly  spent  in  arrangements  for 
a  partridge  hunt.  Don  Bernardo  supped  at  the  Ma- 
yorga  mansion  and  passed  the  evening  in  the  patio,  con 
versing  chiefly  about  the  Falkland  Islands,  called  the  Mal- 
vinas  by  the  Spaniards. 

He  told  at  great  length,  and  with  a  relish  delightful  to 
hear,  of  the  wonderful  strain  of  hunting  dogs  bred  in 
those  islands,  the  marvellous  Malvinas  pointers.  Each  of 
them,  he  claimed,  was  pointer,  setter,  Newfoundland  dog, 
and  water  spaniel,  all  at  once,  and  better  than  any  of  th* 
four,  exhibiting  none  of  their  defects  and  combining  all 
their  excellencies. 

He  narrated  his  first  acquaintance  with  a  Malvinas 
pointer,  his  determination  to  introduce  the  breed  into  Para 
guay,  the  names  of  the  island  breeders,  the  names  of  the 
sea-captains  who  imported  dogs  for  him,  the  pedigrees  of 
the  dogs  imported,  to  the  seventh  generation,  their  names, 
the  names  of  their  descendants,  to  whom  each  had  been 
given  or  sold,  their  histories,  exploits  and  fates;  all  with 
so  lively  a  gusto  that  his  interest  in  the  subject  communi 
cated  itself  to  his  listeners. 

"Yes,"  Don  Vicente  remarked,  "when  a  Malvinar-  pointer 


288  EL   SUPREMO 

has  ranged  a  field  you  might  stake  your  existence  that  in 
that  field  there  is  not  one  single  bird." 

"You  can't  beat  a  Malvinas  pointer,"  Don  Antonio 
added, ' '  for  scent,  endurance,  or  courage. ' ' 

"Nor  yet,"  said  Don  Baltasar,  "for  sagacity  and  fidel- 
ity." 

This  last  speech  particularly  pleased  Don  Bernardo  and 
he  proceeded  to  give  many  anecdotes  of  his  dogs'  intelli 
gence  and  faithfulness. 

As  Don  Baltasar  and  Don  Antonio  declared  themselves 
too  old  and  indolent  for  the  fatigues  of  gunning,  and  as 
the  younger  men  present  all  alleged  various  reasons  why 
they  could  not  join,  it  was  decided  that  the  party  was  to 
consist  of  Don  Bernardo,  Don  Vicente  and  Hawthorne 
only. 

Both  Don  Bernardo  and  Don  Vicente  favoured  going 
partridge-shooting  in  the  cool  of  the  evening,  after  a  com 
fortable  dinner  and  a  long  siesta;  but  Hawthorne  decided 
that  having  come  to  Asuncion  on  business  he  could  not  give 
that  time  of  day  to  pleasure.  To  which  considerations  Don 
Bernardo  gracefully  acceded  and  agreed  to  expect  his 
guests  about  sunrise. 

"It  will  be  all  the  same  to  me,"  he  remarked.  "I  am 
always  up  and  about  before  dawn." 

Carmelo,  after  Bernardo,  had  gone  home,  whispered  to 
Hawthorne  at  the  first  opportunity: 

"Father  would  not  let  me  tell  you,  if  he  knew  what  I 
am  doing,  but  I  think  you  ought  to  understand.  The  rea 
son  why  none  of  us  would  go  is  that  the  dear  old  boy  would 
insist  on  every  one  of  his  party  stopping  in  to  breakfast 
with  him  on  the  way  home.  It  would  never  do  to  hurt  his 
feelings  by  refusing,  and  then  he'd  starve  himself  on  half 
a  meal  a  day  for  weeks  to  even  up  expenses. ' ' 

"Is  he  as  poor  as  that?"  Hawthorne  exclaimed. 

"Bless  his  kind  old  heart!"  said  Carmelo,  "he's  as  lav 
ish  when  it  comes  to  entertaining  as  when  he  was  governor, 
offers  just  all  he  has  without  reserve  or  forethought.  And 
he  is  really  a  pauper.  After  he  abdicated,  Benito  posi 
tively  refused  to  leave  him.  Don  Bernardo  insisted;  said 
he  could  no  longer  afford  a  servant,  that  Benito  could  have 
his  choice  of  affluent  masters.  Benito  was  hurt,  asked  if 
after  thirty  years'  faithful  service  during  his  prosperity  he 


RIDES  AND   PARTRIDGES         289 

really  meant  to  humiliate  hiin  by  turning  him  off  the  mo 
ment  he  fell  into  adversity.  He  ended  by  bursting  into 
tears. 

"That  was  too  much  for  Don  Bernardo.    He  gave  in. 

' '  Benito  rented  for  him  that  little  house  beyond  the  Con 
vent  of  Mercy  at  the  end  of  Calle  Concepcion,  and  posi 
tively  supported  both  of  them  out  of  his  own  savings  for 
more  than  two  years,  telling  his  master  that  out  of  respect 
for  him  a  general  contribution  had  been  subscribed  to 
among  all  the  old  Spaniards.  When  his  funds  were  ex 
hausted,  his  purse  almost  empty,  his  last  maravedi  in  sight, 
Benito  did  go  the  rounds  of  all  the  old  Spaniards,  in  town 
and  out,  and  levied  contributions  according  to  each  one's 
income.  He  was  very  moderate,  even  parsimonious,  and 
refused  any  sum  above  what  he  thought  the  least  he  could 
manage  with.  He  refused  lump  sums  from  father,  Don 
Antonio  and  both  the  Casals.  They  all  put  themselves 
down  for  as  much  as  Benito  would  accept,  even  Don  Tori- 
bio  sends  his  contribution  every  quarter  from  San  Ber 
nardino,  though  he  has  never  been  to  town  since  the  first 
junta  took  over  the  government. 

"Even  some  of  the  Creoles  contribute.  Old  Gumesindo 
waylaid  Benito  and  insisted  on  subscribing. 

"  'You  are  his  enemy/  said  Benito. 

"  'Never  enemy/  said  Gumesindo,  who  is  really  a  good 
sort,  'say  "adversary"  if  you  must.  We  are  opposed  in 
politics ;  my  conscience  compels  me  to  side  with  the  patriots. 
But  I  was  never  his  antagonist  except  in  a  discussion. 
Most  of  all  he  was  good  to  me  when  he  was  Intendente 
and  I  a  mere  cattle-breeder's  lad.  Let  me  express  my 
gratitude  by  contributing  my  quota/ 

"And   Benito   consented. 

"The  old  man  was  always  used  to  leaving  everything 
to  Benito,  and  continues  to  do  so  without  after-thought. 
He  is  always  inviting  friends  to  breakfast  or  dine.  Benito 
has  passed  the  word  round  that  it  must  never  be  more  than 
three  at  once,  and  that  seldom.  Once  a  week  is  as  often 
as  his  exchequer  will  stand  a  guest  to  a  meal  and  once  a 
month  is  often  enough  for  two  together.  We  all  under 
stand  and  steer  as  close  to  declining  altogether  as  his 
cronies  can  without  offending  him.  Bless  his  dear  old 
heart!" 


ago  EL   SUPREMO 


(2) 

Hawthorne  and  Don  Vicente  found  Don  Bernardo 
not  only  awake  and  dressed,  but  ready  to  mount.  His 
long  Biscayan  fowling-piece  with  its  damascened  barrel, 
carved,  silver-mounted  butt  and  conspicuous  lock,  was  in 
his  hands,  oiled  and  loaded;  his  Malvinas  pointer  frisked 
about  his  feet;  Benito  held  his  mule  and  his  master's  horse 
ready  saddled  at  the  door. 

There  was  a  delay  over  the  Malvinas  pointers.  Haw 
thorne  admired  them :  small-sized  they  were  to  be  sure,  but 
beautiful  dogs,  their  liver-coloured  coats  sleek  and  fine, 
their  faces  full  of  intelligence,  their  ears  long  and  silky. 
At  his  expressions  of  commendation  the  old  man  must 
needs  tell  their  names,  pedigrees,  qualities,  history  and  ex 
ploits  at  some  length. 

Once  in  the  saddle  and  their  three  servants  on  muleback 
behind  them,  a  short  canter,  the  dogs  scampering  along 
before  or  behind  them,  brought  them  to  fields  promising 
-excellently  for  their  sport.  There  they  set  off  on  foot,  leav 
ing  the  grooms  holding  their  mounts,  and  within  two  hours 
had  bagged  a  round  three  dozen  brace  of  quail  among 
them. 

Eeturned  to  Don  Bernardo's  humble  dwelling,  with  its 
roof  of  split  palm-trunks,  they  breakfasted  in  his  neat  liv 
ing-room,  at  a  table  whose  worn  cloth  was  of  linen  as  white 
as  any  snow,  which  was  set  with  silver  utensils  barely  suf 
ficient  for  the  three,  and  with  a  cut-glass  carafe  of  spar 
kling  water. 

The  wine  stood  on  a  small  sideboard,  and,  when  both  his 
guests  declined  it,  Don  Bernardo  remarked: 

"If  you  will  have  none,  neither  shall  I.y> 

The  breakfast  was  merely  mate,  milk,  chipd  and  fruity 
Benito  waiting  with  the  practised  grace  of  a  life-long  but 
ler,  with  the  respectful  demeanour  of  a  born  servant,  with 
the  reverent  attention  of  a  domestic  who  adored  his  master. 

After  the  leisurely  meal  was  despatched,  Don  Bernardo, 
with  the  liveliest  expressions  of  pleasure,  exhibited  his  pet 
humming-birds.  There  were  a  half-dozen  cages  of  these 
tiny  creatures  hanging  around  the  room.  He  opened  all 
the  cages  at  once  and  Benito,  unordered,  brought  a  glass  of 


RIDES  AND    PARTRIDGES         291 

clear  white  syrup  and  some  small  quills.  Although  every 
cage  door  was  wide  and  the  little  wine  glass  of  syrup  in 
plain  sight  of  every  bird,  not  a  bird  left  its  perch  until 
their  master  gave  the  signal. 

Then,  in  an  instant,  the  room  was  full  of  whirring  wings 
and  tiny  shapes  of  emerald,  ruby  and  sapphire  tints.  They 
flew  about  his  ears,  buzzed  and  fluttered  about  his  head 
and  hands ;  two  at  once  poised  there,  sipped  nectar  from  his 
lips  where  the  dipped  quill  had  touched  them;  others 
quaffed  syrup  from  the  quills  he  held  in  his  fingers.  It 
was  a  charming  sight  and  the  old  man 's  pleasure  in  his  pets 
was  more  captivating  than  the  spectacle,  which  Don  Ber 
nardo  terminated  by  repeating  the  signal.  At  that  the 
flock  dispersed,  each  bird  to  its  own  cage. 


(3) 

Amid  the  customary  profusion  upon  the  Mayorga  dining- 
table  roast  quail  appeared  conspicuously  that  day.  While 
Hawthorne  was  enjoying  one  a  message  was  brought  him 
from  the  Palacio,  requesting  his  presence  as  soon  as  con 
venient  after  the  siesta  hour,  to  accompany  the  Dictator 
on  his  afternoon  ride. 

When  Hawthorne  reached  the  Government  House  he 
found  Francia  under  the  orange  trees  in  the  fore-court, 
where  he  had  first  seen  him.  He  was  wearing  his  large 
silver  spurs  over  his  low  shoes,  as  when  he  dismounted  at 
Itapua,  white  silk  stockings,  buff  cord  trousers,  buff  waist 
coat,  and  his  blue  General 's  uniform  coat,  to  the  left  breast 
of  which  was  affixed  a  sort  of  decoration  like  an  order, 
something  between  a  breast-knot  and  a  star;  its  centre  of 
rich  embroidery,  from  which  radiated  and  depended  inter 
twisted  tri-colour  ribbons.  Across  his  breast,  from  his 
right  shoulder,  slanted  a  broad  sash  of  bright  satin,  its 
colour  that  startling  tint  locally  known  as  patriots'  blue, 
at  once  dark  and  brilliant,  making  the  cloth  of  his  uniform 
coat  look  dingy  and  faded  by  comparison.  Its  ends  were 
finished  off  by  tassels  of  as  intensely  blue  a  cord,  picked 
out  with  gold.  He  was  girt  with  his  big  cavalry  sabre. 
In  his  hand  he  carried  a  yellow  malacca  cane,  with  a 
gold  head  and  black  silk  tassel.  His  cocked  hat  was  very 


292  EL   SUPREMO 

big  and  black  and  set  off  by  a  stiff  red  feather  and  a  tri 
colour  cockade. 

This  overplus  of  incongruous  finery  jarred  on  Haw 
thorne  as  unworthy  of  the  man,  but  he  forgot  all  about 
it  the  moment  Francia  spoke;  his  manner,  no  matter  how 
trifling  his  utterance,  was  always  that  of  a  born  ruler. 

' '  Senor  Don  Guillermo, ' '  he  said,  when  the  greetings  and 
enuff -taking  were  done  with,  "I  have  sent  for  you  because 
I  wish  to  show  you  my  barracks  and  have  you  present  at  a 
review  of  my  troops.  I  asked  you  to  come  on  foot  as  I 
wished  to  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  ride  one  of  my 
horses.  Of  them  I  give  you  your  choice.  What  sort  of 
horse  do  you  prefer  to  ride  ? ' ' 

"Any  kind  of  ridable  horse  will  suit  me,"  Hawthorne 
replied  easily. 

"Such  a  horse  as  Don  Beltran  rode  when  I  first  saw 
Mm?"  Francia  queried  slyly. 

"Beltran,"  Hawthorne  said,  "is  a  better  horseman  than 
I  shall  ever  be,  especially  in  his  Castilian  grace  and  a 
sort  of  ease  of  a  nobleman  born.  But  I  could  never  have 
kept  up  with  San  Martin  in  Cuyo  nor  with  Bolivar  in 
Granada  if  I  were  not  capable  of  riding  any  horse  once 
thrown  and  saddled." 

"I  can  mount  you  on  a  more  intractable  animal  than 
Don  Beltran  rode,  if  you  like,"  Francia  suggested. 

' '  I  have  no  objection  to  showing  you  what  I  can  do  with 
a  vicious  horse,"  was  Hawthorne's  answer,  "but  I  should 
prefer  trying  him  in  the  open  rather  than  in  a  cramped 
Plaza  with  narrow  streets  leading  out  of  it.  Suppose  I 
ride  some  quiet  animal  to  the  barracks;  try  there,  before 
or  after  the  review,  any  beast  you  select;  and  ride  him  on 
our  return." 

"Capital!"  Francia  exclaimed,  calling  loudly,  "Bopi!" 

"When  the  boy  came  he  gave  his  orders  in  Guarani. 

Hawthorne  found  himself  horsed  on  a  manageable  though 
spirited  dapple-grey,  girthed  with  a  new  saddle  of  Eu 
ropean  pattern.  Francia  rode  a  tall  black  stallion.  His 
saddle  was  of  the  local  fashion,  high-peaked,  silver-edged 
and  cornered,  covered  with  crimson  velvet,  with  huge  crim 
son  velvet  holsters  and  a  long,  tube-like  holder  for  his 
malacca  cane.  From  the  holsters  projected  the  butts  of 
two  large  double-barrelled  pistols. 


RIDES  AND   PARTRIDGES         293 

They  rode,  Hawthorne  at  Francia's  left  stirrup,  twelve 
lancers  behind  him,  across  the  Jesuits'  bridge,  past  the 
Dominican  Monastery,  across  its  plaza  where  the  boys  had 
chivied  El  Zapo,  along  the  sinuous  irregularities  of  Calle. 
Santo  Domingo,  past  the  long  wall  of  the  prison,  around  the 
church  of  the  Incarnation,  and  through  a  tangle  of  shaded 
lanes  to  the  barrack  field,  which  extended,  rolling,  green 
and  treeless,  all  about  the  barracks:  long,  low,  tile-roofed 
buildings  lining  three  sides  of  a  more  or  less  rectangular 
drill-ground,  very  dusty  and  glaring,  along  the  west  side  of 
which  stood  some  thatched  stables,  roughly  completing  the 
rectangle.  There  was  a  large  horse-corral  of  palm-stakes 
and  hide-rope  at  the  further  corner. 

Some  two  thousand  troops  turned  out  for  review:  about 
four  hundred  infantry,  four  hundred  mulatto  lancers,  and 
the  rest  cavalry  of  the  usual  South  American  type,  as  to 
men  and  horses,  but  less  formidable  in  personal  appearance 
and  better  uniformed  than  any  troops  Hawthorne  had  seen 
on  the  continent. 

The  infantry  were  barefoot.  The  rest  wore  potro-boots, 
which  means  "colt-boots."  Except  the  dignitaries  and  rich 
of  the  cities,  all  mankind  in  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  region  at 
that  time  either  went  barefoot  or  wore  po£ro-boots.  These 
were  made  by  killing  a  colt,  severing  the  feet  at  the  fetlock 
joint,  making  a  circular  slash  all  round  each  leg  close  to  the 
body,  peeling  the  skin  off  downwards  like  the  finger  of  a 
tight  glove  turned  inside  out,  tanning  and  suppling  the 
funnel-shaped  tubes  of  hide,  and  further  manipulating  them 
into  a  very  comfortable  and  durable  pair  of  boots,  of  which 
the  heels  were  formed  by  the  bend  at  the  hock.  The  better 
sort  had  the  lower  ends  brought  together  and  sewed  up; 
most  Gauchos  left  the  toes  open.  The  boots  of  Francia's 
cavalry  had  shaped  toes. 

The  uniforms  did  not  vary  much.  White  trousers,  not 
very  clean,  and  red  waistcoats,  much  faded,  were  universal. 
The  lancers  wore  foraging  caps  and  white  coat- jackets  or 
jacket-coats.  The  rest  wore  round  hats  and  blue  coats,  the 
cavalry  with  braid  along  the  seams  of  the  back. 

The  infantry  went  through  the  manual  of  arms  with 
more  or  less  of  an  approximation  to  accuracy  and  prompt 
ness,  and  performed  some  simple  evolutions,  without  much 
unevenness  of  line  and  with  no  confusion. 


294  EL   SUPREMO 

The  inspection  was  after  the  evolutions,  and  the  Dic 
tator  dismounted  and  walked  along  the  ranks.  "With  his 
own  hand  he  seized  and  wrenched  out  of  line  and  threw 
flat  in  the  dust  two  delinquents.  The  first,  for  a  belt  worn 
awry,  he  sentenced  to  ten  lashes  and  ten  days  in  the  public 
prison;  the  second,  for  a  stain  on  his  coat,  to  double  as 
much  of  each. 

Remounting,  Francia  inspected  the  lancers  and  cavalry, 
every  man  of  whom  had  in  good  order  his  uniform,  weapons 
and  his  recado,  that  complication  of  gear,  so  astonishing 
to  a  foreigner,  so  efficient  in  use,  with  which  every  South 
American  horseman  leaded  his  mount;  a  nearly  entire  ox 
hide  covering  the  horse  almost  from  withers  to  croup,  to 
keep  his  sweat  from  the  rider's  gear;  a  saddle  like  a  pack 
saddle,  high-peaked  before  and  behind ;  both  hide  and  sad 
dle  cinched  to  the  horse  by  a  strong  girth  fastened  by 
thongs  passed  through  a  ring-bolt ;  over  the  saddle  worsted 
quilts  and  cotton  quilts  and  blankets,  one  over  the  other; 
above  them  a  cover  of  cool,  tough,  soft  leather ;  uppermost 
and  outside  all  a  very  broad  girth  of  fine,  tough  webbing: 
the  whole,  with  his  poncho,  providing  a  campaigner  with 
bedding,  coverings,  awnings,  shelter  in  down-pours  of  rain, 
and  all  needed  protection  to  keep  him  fit  to  travel  and 
fight. 

During  the  inspection  Hawthorne  rode  by  the  Dictator. 
After  it  was  over  Francia  said: 

"Now  you  shall  see  something  worth  seeing.  Just  go 
with  Marcelino."  And  he  called  a  captain  and  gave  him 
some  rapid  orders  in  Guarani,  introducing  him  as  Don  Mar- 
celino  Sanabria. 

With  him  Hawthorne  galloped  off  between  the  stables  into 
a  considerable  expanse  of  open  country,  more  or  less  level, 
but  dipping  into  broad  shallow  hollows  and  diversified  by 
long  swells  and  low  knolls. 

On  one  of  these  Hawthorne  and  his  guide  took  their 
stand  and  presently  saw  the  entire  body  of  cavalry  come 
forth  from  the  parade-ground,  the  Dictator,  naked  sabre 
in  hand,  at  their  head. 

When  they  neared  the  knoll,  Francia  stood  up  in  his  stir 
rups,  turned  his  head,  and  shouted : 

"A  paso  lento!" 

At  once  all  slowed  to  a  walk. 


RIDES  AND    PARTRIDGES         295 

Presently  lie  gave  the  command: 

"A  paso  redoblado,"  and  all  resumed  the  canter  at 
which  they  had  left  the  drill-yard.  ^  At  that  pace  they 
dashed  round  the  knoll,  swept  round  in  a  wide  circle,  and 
came  on  again  as  before. 

Then  Francia  gave  the  order: 

"Cdrguen  a  galope!" 

At  the  sound  they  broke  into  full  gallop  and  charged 
past,  tearing  along,  every  sabre  waving,  Francia  leading 
with  boyish  pleasure. 

Out  of  the  dust-cloud  of  their  distant  progress  emerged 
Francia,  riding  alone  towards  his  guest.  He  ranged  him 
self  on  the  knoll  between  Hawthorne  and  Captain  Sana- 
bria,  who  promptly  reined  his  horse  back  two  lengths.  The 
three  then  watched  the  squadron  return  at  a  canter. 

In  the  drill-ground  Francia  called : 

"Montufar!" 

When  the  captain  had  come  close  he  asked : 

' '  Don  Luis,  how  did  that  idiot  come  to  fall  ? ' ' 

"His  horse,"  said  Montufar,  "stumbled  over  a  charred 
trunk  of  a  palm. ' ' 

*  *  Which  man  was  it  ? "  Francia  queried. 

At  the  answer,  "Kamon  Benitez,"  he  scowled,  and 
snarled : 

' '  Show  me  any  man  whose  name  ends  in  -ez  and  I  show 
you  a  bungler,  a  coward  or  a  fool.  They  are  all  alike 
and  most  of  them  scoundrels  to  boot!  Fetch  the  dolt 
here!" 

When  the  wretched  trooper  was  before  him  he  berated 
him,  concluding: 

"You  can  neither  manage  a  horse,  nor  find  your  feet 
when  you  throw  it  from  under  you.  You  shall  have  fifty^ 
five  lashes  and  three  months  in  prison.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  you  shall  have  one  day  to  get  out  of  my  sight.  If  I 
ever  set  .eyes  on  you  I'll  have  you  shot." 

The  ranks  dismissed,  Francia  said : 

"Now,  I'll  show  you  some  of  my  best  riders  and  worst 
horses. ' ' 

There  followed  a  stirring  exhibition  of  lassoing  specified 
beasts  from  the  corral,  saddling  and  riding  them.  At  the 
end  of  it  Hawthorne  did  as  well  as  the  best  of  the  riders, 
and,  after  his  mount  was  tamed  under  him,  cantered  back 


296  EL   SUPREMO 

alongside  of  Francia,  whose  face  wore  a  lively  expression 
of  pleasure. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo, ' '  he  said,  "my  respect  for  you 
increases.  Do  you  wish  to  ride  that  horse  through  the  city 
as  you  proposed?" 

"He'll  give  me  no  more  serious  trouble/'  Hawthorne 
said.  "But  I  doubt  if  I  can  keep  a  barely-broken 
colt  like  this  alongside  of  you.  He  half  bolts  every  few 
minutes. ' ' 

"Ride  ahead  then/'  Francia  said,  "if  you  must." 

"Do  you  mean  it?"  Hawthorne  could  not  help  exclaim 
ing. 

'  *  I  usually  mean  what  I  say, ' '  Francia  snapped,  adding, 
Jn  a  milder  tone :  ' '  Etiquette  must  yield  to  horse-flesh ! ' ' 

And  they  set  off,  the  twelve  lancers  some  distance  in  the 
rear. 

They  returned  by  a  roundabout  way,  at  first  through  a 
labyrinth  of  green  lanes  south-eastwards  from  the  barracks, 
then  into  Calle  de  la  Merced. 

The  westward  wall  of  the  Convent  of  Mercy  was  blank 
whitewash,  doorless  and  windowless,  at  the  top  of  a  low 
grass  bank.  Facing  the  Convent  and  the  bank  across  the 
narrow  street  was  an  isolated  house,  decidedly  of  the  better 
class.  About  twenty  yards  nearer  than  the  corner  of  the 
house  a  white  barrel  stood  by  the  roadside. 

At  this  Hawthorne's  mount  shied  violently,  and,  curbed 
in  his  efforts  to  bolt,  began  to  rear,  kick,  buck  and  make 
every  other  kind  of  effort  by  which  a  vicious  horse  tries 
to  unseat  his  rider. 

Hawthorne,  all  his  attention  on  the  horse,  paid  none  to 
the  roadway.  But  his  experience  on  the  plains  of  Granada 
and  Cuyo  had  trained  his  muscles  to  act  before,  his  mind 
realised  what  he  was  doing. 

When  the  frantic  brute 's  forelegs  vanished  into  a  hole  in 
the  road,  as  if  they  had  broken  through  the  covering  of  a 
well,  Hawthorne  leapt  clear,  Gaucho-fashion,  and  landed 
on  his  feet,  as  the  horse  crashed  over,  the  bones  of  both 
forelegs  snapped  off. 

Francia  reined  up  and  gazed  at  the  widening  hole  into 
which  the  struggling,  screaming  beast  was  steadily  sink 
ing.  He  spoke  first  over  his  shoulder  in  Guarani  to  one 
of  the  lancers. 


RIDES  AND    PARTRIDGES         297 

The  man  dismounted,  set  his  pistol  to  the  horse's  head, 
and  put  it  out  of  its  misery. 

Then  Francia  spoke  in  French: 

"Monsieur  Atorno,  do  you  think  it  probable  that  this 
highway  came  into  this  condition  by  accident?" 

"It  is  manifestly  a  trap,"  Hawthorne  affirmed,  also 
speaking  French,  "a  trap  clumsily  conceived  but  laid  with 
care  and  cunning." 

"A  trap  for  whom?"  Francia  demanded. 

"You  can  answer  that  question  better  than  I,"  Haw* 
thorne  retorted. 

"My  answer,"  Francia  said,  still  in  French,  "is  that, 
to  my  thinking,  this  perhaps  makes  three  times.  You  seem 
to  have  been  sent  to  Paraguay  for  my  personal  benefit." 

He  turned  to  the  lancers  and  gave  rapid  orders  in 
Guarani.  Six  of  them  at  once  burst  into  the  house  and 
returned  with  Don  Jose  Carisimo. 

"Senor  Don  Jose,"  said  Francia  silkily ,. "  when  I  rode 
past  your  house  last  Friday  afternoon  I  noticed  the  gutter 
out  of  repair.  I  sent  you  word  to  have  it  made  right. 
Next  morning  I  issued  a  permit  for  the  tearing  up  of  the 
roadway.  Your  workmen,  I  was  told,  were  at  work  late  at 
night. 

"I  was  pleased  at  your  zeal.  I  am  not  pleased  at  the 
intention  of  your  zeal,  now  I  have  discovered  its  object. 
As  a  result  of  your  workmen's  activity  the  roadway  past 
your  house  is  in  a  state  menacing  to  the  safety  of  passers-by. 
I  am  displeased.  You  shall  have  time  to  think  the  matter 
over  in  the  public  prison." 

He  gave  more  swift  orders  in  Guarani  and  the  lancers 
promptly  secured  Don  Jose  on  a  horse  and  hurried  him  off, 
two  before  him,  one  on  each  side  of  him  on  foot,  and  two 
behind  him. 

On  the  spare  horse  left  by  the  second  of  the  lancers  who 
had  walked  by  Don  Jose  Hawthorne  finished  his  ride. 


(4) 

At  the  Government  House  Francia  remarked: 
"Distraction  from  worry  is  my  chief  need.    Would  it  ba 
imposing  on  you  to  ask  you  to  do  penance  a  third  time?" 


298  EL   SUPREMO 

"No  imposition  on  me,"  Hawthorne  smiled.  "Nor  any 
penance  to  me.  I  like  your  fare."" 

As  they  paced  under  the  orange  trees  by  the  garden- 
wall,  Francia  staring  down  the  thick  bushes  on  the  steep 
bank  at  the  lagoon,  spoke  suddenly. 

"You  see  the  sort  of  ingratitude  I  meet  with  from  all 
the  old  Spaniards!" 

Before  Hawthorne  could  reply  he  spoke  again : 

* '  But  I  must  not  spoil  your  relish  with  my  troubles.  Let 
us  talk  of  pleasanter  matters." 

Towards  the  end  of  the  meal  Hawthorne  remarked: 

"What  you  need  is  not  laborious  conversation.  Let  us 
absorb  ourselves  in  chess." 

He  won  three  short  games  and  Francia  commented : 

"These  hot  northerly  winds  always  make  me  nervous, 
fidgety  and  bad  tempered.  I  am  ready  to  brain  you  for 
beating  me  fairly  when  I  am  too  strung-up  to  play  de 
cently.  I  hate  the  city  in  weather  like  this  and  yearn  for 
the  country.  Let  us  talk  instead  of  beginning  another 
game. ' ' 

"I  should  rather  suggest,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "that  I 
take  my  leave,  with  your  permission." 

"Am  I  such  bad  company?"  Franeia  smiled.  "I  sup 
pose  I  am.  The  permission  shall  then  be  granted  after  you 
answer  me  one  question.  I  want  advice.  What  do  you 
advise  about  Don  Jose?" 

"I  ought  not  to  advise,"  Hawthorne  answered. 

1 '  Pay  me  the  compliment, ' '  Francia  scowled,  * '  of  assum 
ing  that  I  have  considered  and  waived  any  reasons  for  your 
not  advising." 

"I  then  advise,"  Hawthorne  said,  "that  he  be  merely 
kept  in  prison  until  you  have  evidence  to  convict  him. 
If  convicted  he  should  be  shot.  If  no  evidence  can  be  found 
he  should  be  released  upon  payment  of  the  largest  fine  you 
can  squeeze  out  of  his  estate.  He  knows  he  is  guilty  and 
will  pay  anything  to  get  off." 

Francia  sighed. 

"You  talk  so  lightly  of  shooting  people,"  he  said,  "and 
more  lightly  of  eliciting  evidence.  Evidence  against  an 
old  Spaniard  cannot  be  got  except  by  torture.  Torture 
I  am  loath  to  employ.  No  one  has  been  tortured  ,in  Para 
guay  since  Espinosa's  death.  Torture  was  expressly  de- 


RIDES  AND   PARTRIDGES         299 

Glared  illegal  by  the  first  convention  and  at  my  suggestion. 
All  the  Intendentes  used  torture  to  extort  confessions  till 
mild  old  Don  Bernardo  came  here.  But  already  the  usage 
of  two  centuries  and  a  half  is  forgotten  in  ten  years.  If  I 
use  torture  I  shall  be  execrated  as  the  inventor  of  devilish 
tyrannies. 

"No,  I  shall  find  no  evidence. 

"And  I  had  myself  thought  of  a  staggering  fine  as  the 
best  solution.  Don  Jose  is  too  big  a  fool  to  be  dangerous, 
and  the  state  has  therefore  nothing  to  gain  by  casting  him 
into  a  dungeon  to  rot.  He  is  only  a  cat's-paw  anyhow, 
and,  as  I  said,  I  cannot  hope  to  reach  the  men  who  egged 
him  on.  At  large  he  will  originate  no  serious  mischief. ' ' 

(5) 

At  the  Mayorga  mansion  Hawthorne  found  Beltran  the 
centre  of  an  animated  group  in  the  patio.  All  rose  as  he 
entered. 

"Here  you  are  at  last!"  Beltran  exclaimed.  "I've  been 
waiting  for  you  since  a  mere  moment  after  you  left.  I 
came  in  to  take  you  partridge  shooting." 

"I  went  partridge  shooting  at  sunrise,"  Hawthorne  ex 
claimed. 

"You  did  just  right,"  Beltran  replied.  "It  is  ideal 
weather  for  partridges  and  they  are  plentiful.  Come  on 
with  me  to  Itapua  and  shoot  more  to-morrow  morning." 

"You  tempt  me,"  said  Hawthorne. 

"You  have  sense,"  Beltram  smiled.  "I  was  convinced 
you  would  agree.  So  were  Bon  Bernardo  and  Don  Vicente. 
They  rode  out  to  dinner  with  Grandmother  and  will  be 
ready  to  start  with  us  at  dawn.  The  horses  are  already 
saddled.  I've  kept  them  standing  ever  since  I  came." 

As  they  rode  through  the  tepid  moonlight  he  remarked, 
sniffing : 

"It  smells  to  me  as  if  we  might  have  a  change  of  wind. 
Strange  we  've  had  no  rain  with  this. ' ' 

(6) 

Hawthorne,  dressing  in  the  first  glimmer  of  dawn,  real 
ised  that  a  south-west  wind  had  blown  away  the  enervating 


goo  EL   SUPREMO 

mugginess  of  the  past  few  days  and  revivified  the  cooled 
and  cleaned  atmosphere. 

In  the  patio  he  found  Don  Bernardo  and  Don  Vicente 
already  dressed  and  holding  their  fowling-pieces.  Watch 
ing  them,  every  muscle  aquiver  at  sight  of  the  guns,  all 
eagerness,  all  well-trained  repression,  four  Malvinas 
pointers  waited  about,  twitching  with  suppressed  impa 
tience. 

When  Beltran  joined  them  they  had  breakfast,  a  mere 
gourd  of  mate  apiece,  a  bit  of  chipd  bread  and  a  cup  of 
chocolate,  all  handed  about  on  trays  by  the  mulatto  ser 
vants,  one  of  whom  brought  in  two  fine  new  English  bird- 
guns  for  Beltran  and  Hawthorne. 

Outside  four  mulatto  grooms  held  as  many  horses,  two 
bays  with  English  pig-skin  saddles,  a  tall  roan,  and  a  taller 
dapple-grey,  girthed  with  old-fashioned  peninsular,  high- 
peaked  saddles,  one  of  green  velvet,  the  other  of  crimson 
plush. 

When  the  gentlemen  had  mounted,  the  four  grooms,  each 
with  his  master's  gun,  swung  themselves  on  their  cream- 
coloured  mules.  As  the  last  human  being  was  astride  the 
four  pointers  gave  vent  to  a  single  simultaneous  bark  of 
ecstasy  and  set  off  at  an  incredible  rate  of  speed,  tearing 
along  belly  to  garth,  with  prodigious  bounds,  thenceforth 
silent  as  before.  Presently,  after  a  wide  cast  ahead,  they 
came  back,  circled  about  the  horses  and  tore  off  again, 
repeating  the  manreuvre  as  long  as  their  masters  were  in 
the  saddle. 

When  they  started  their  brief  canter  the  light  was  still 
too  dim  to  follow  the  dogs  with  their  eyes  to  the  limit  of 
each  loop  of  their  excursions ;  by  the  time  they  dismounted, 
merely  a  few  minutes  later,  and  scarcely  a  mile  from  Dona 
Juana's,  the  dawn  was  rapIHly  brightening. 

They  reined  up  under  some  overarching,  feathery  locust 
trees  in  a  grass-grown,  little-used  lane.  Dismounting,  Bel 
tran  briefly  ordered  the  servants  to  wait  their  return  with 
out  moving  from  the  spot.  Each  of  the  four  tucked  his 
gun  under  his  arm  and,  carefully  avoiding  thorns,  they 
slid  cautiously  through  a  narrow  gap  in  a  tall  cactus  hedge. 
Hawthorne,  gazing  about,  found  himself  in  a  big  field,  long 
kept  under  grass,  and  so  pastured  down  that  it  was  weed- 
grown  and  full  of  clumps  of  bushes,  between  which  the 


RIDES  AND   PARTRIDGES         301 

•ropped  herbage  was  short  and  easy  to  walk  over.  It 
sloped  up  every  way  from  where  they  stood,  so  that  they 
seemed  at  the  bottom  of  a  big  shallow  half  bowl. 

Don  Vicente,  gazing  about  also,  remarked : 

* '  So  this  is  where  you  have  brought  us ! " 

"Yes,"  Beltran  replied.  "All  this  land  gets  fuller  and 
fuller  of  partridges  every  year.  I  found  that  out  the  day 
after  I  reached  home." 

"True,"  Don  Bernardo  observed,  "being  practically 
deserted.  But  I  wish  you  had  gone  somewhere  else.  I  do 
not  like  the  idea." 

"Nonsense!"  Beltran  laughed  cheerfully.  "He  never 
objects  to  any  one  hunting  over  it.  I  made  sure  of 
that." 

They  spread  out  and  began  to  trudge  up  the  hill,  the 
dogs  ranging  the  field,  careering  and  dashing  about,  insane 
with  delight  in  the  open  air,  the  morning  dew,  and  the 
prospect  of  game.  Hawthorne  was  amazed  at  their  tireless 
running  and  astonishing  quickness.  Also  he  was  more 
than  a  little  surprised  at  the  very  respectable  figure  Dp» 
Vicente  made  as  a  gunner.  His  plumpness  hindered  hin? 
not  a  particle;  he  seemed  not  to  notice  the  weight  of  hi* 
gun,  and  he  stepped  out  briskly. 

The  dogs  ranged  the  entire  field  without  coming  to  f 
point. 

The  upper  rim  of  the  field  was  a  ridge  topped  all  along 
by  a  formidable  prickly-pear  hedge.  This  they  followed, 
seeking  in  vain  for  a  gap,  the  dogs  keeping  close  to  them. 
When  at  last  they  found  an  opening  and  edged  their  way 
through,  they  saw  the  dawn  glowing  over  a  beautiful  pros 
pect  of  wooded  ridges,  verdant  valleys,  grassy  slopes,  hol 
lows  green  with  brakes  of  cane,  maize-fields  edged  with 
orange-groves,  and  meadows  ribboned  with  silvery  brooks. 
The  field  which  they  had  entered  was  much  like  that  they 
had  left,  old  pasture,  but  with  no  cattle  or  other  living 
things  anywhere  visible.  Not  far  off,  to  their  right,  a  cot 
tage  roof  appeared  among  some  orange  trees. 

The  dogs,  scattering  up  and  down  the  hedge,  checked  in 
their  long,  loping  gait,  and  the  four  came  to  a  point  almost 
simultaneously. 

Six  birds  whirred  up  and  each  gunner  brought  one  down. 

Hawthorne,  watching  the  dogs,  marvelled  at  the  pertia- 


302  EL   SUPREMO 

acity  with  which  one  retrieved  his  bird  from  an  exception 
ally  close  and  thorny,  thicket  where  the  cactus  hedge  broad 
ened  to  a  dense  and  impenetrable  clump. 

A  trifle  farther  down  the  slope  of  the  field  they  secured 
three  more  birds. 

"I  told  you  to  bring  one  of  the  servants,  at  least,"  Ma- 
yorga  remarked. 

"I  like  the  independence  of  doing  without  them,"  Bel- 
tran  replied.  "  Guillermo  and  I  have  both  learned  to  carry 
anything  portable  that  strikes  our  fancy." 

He  slung  four  of  the  partridges  into  his  bag  and  Haw 
thorne  similarly  took  charge  of  the  other  three.  By  the 
time  they  had  crossed  the  field  they  had  a  full  dozen  birds. 

Under  the  first  orange  tree  near  the  cottage  Mayorga 
paused. 

'  *  I  don 't  like  to  go  nearer,  Beltran, ' '  he  said. 

"Nonsense,"  Beltran  argued.  "It's  the  best  place  for 
birds  anywhere  about  here.  The  dwarf  is  almost  the  only 
negro  in  Paraguay  that  is  not  afraid  of  him  and  dares  to 
take  liberties.  Ama  Fruela  told  me  all  about  him.  He 's  a 
chartered  liar,  scarcely  makes  a  pretence  of  caring  for  the 
place,  and  six  nights  out  of  seven  sleeps  at  his  mother's. 
The  house  is  as  empty  as  a  ruin.  No  place  for  birds  like 
a  deserted,  weed-grown  orchard  and  garden." 

They  squirmed  through  a  break  in  the  low  hedge,  and 
almost  immediately  the  dogs  put  up  a  covey  of  birds.  Four 
tumbled. 

"While  the  dogs  were  nosing  about  for  them  Hawthorne 
regarded  the  cottage;  low,  palm-thatched,  evidently  once 
neat  and  trim,  now  .picturesque  in  neglect.  A  little  plant 
with  purple  flowers  waved  in  the  dawn  wind,  bright  in  the 
rays  of  the  new  risen  sun,  sprouting  from  the  decayed 
thatch.  The  adobe  walls  were  streaked  and  rain-washed. 
Weeds  grew  up  in  the  cracks  of  the  brick  pavement  under 
the  little  portico.  The  door  was  fast,  the  windows  shut 
tered  close. 

Conning  the  house  and  unconsciously  treading  a  pace  or 
two  nearer  to  it,  Hawthorne  stubbed  his  toe  on  a  rotting 
log  half  hidden  in  the  weed-grown  grass.  Recovering  him 
self  and  turning  from  his  inspection  he  saw  Don  Bernardo 
and  Don  Vicente  staring  at  the  cottage  with  a  sort  of  awe. 
Beltran  was  some  paces  off  taking  a  bird  from  the  mouth 


RIDES  AND    PARTRIDGES         303 

of  one  of  the  dogs.  In  answer  to  Hawthorne's  questioning 
look  Don  Bernardo  explained : 

"This  is  where  he  lived  before "  his  voice  trailed  off. 

"Is  this  Ibirai?"  Hawthorne  queried  sharply. 

Don  Vicente  nodded. 

The  dogs  cannily  circled  the  house,  keeping  to  the  right, 
and  put  up  bird  after  bird.  His  comrades  bagged  a  full 
dozen  more,  but  Hawthorne  shot  none.  He  was  staring  at 
the  cottage,  wondering  under  which  window  Francia  had 
found  the  corpses  of  the  infant  and  its  way-worn  mother. 

But  when  they  had  made  the  full  circuit  through  the 
riotous  weeds,  and  a  partridge  whirred  up  right  before 
him,  not  two  rods  from  the  corner  of  the  house,  he  aimed 
instinctively  and  winged  it  neatly. 

As  it  came  to  the  ground  a  voice  spoke  from  under  the 
portico  of  the  cottage. 

"Buen  tiro!" 

"Good  shot  indeed,"  said  Hawthorne  before  he  looked 
round.  "Thank  you  for  the  compliment." 

But  when  he  glanced  over  his  shoulder  he  stiffened  in 
every  muscle,  as  petrified  as  his  dazed  companions. 

Under  the  corridor  stood  Francia. 

His  jet  black  hair,  showing  no  trace  of  ever  having  been 
powdered,  combed  back  from  his  bold,  white  forehead,  fell 
in  long,  natural  ringlets  over  his  shoulders,  upon  his  grace 
fully  draped  scarlet  capote,  from  under  which  showed  a 
simple  scholar's  suit  of  plain  black  set  off  only  by  large 
gold  buckles  on  his  low  shoes  and  at  the  knees  of  his 
breeches  and  by  an  old  silver-hilted  sabre  in  a  black  leather 
sheath.  He  held  in  one  hand  a  large  two-handled  silver 
mate  cup.  The  fingers  of  the  other  held  a  cigar.  Beside 
him  stood  a  hideous  little  negro  dwarf,  bandy-legged,  hump 
backed,  his  seamed  and  knotted  face  showing  one  yellow 
eye,  huge  and  rolling. 

For  an  instant  the  four  sportsmen  stared  agape. 

Then  Don  Vicente  and  Don  Bernardo  essayed  to  speak, 
both  at  once.  Each  failed,  Mayorga's  choked  ^gurgle,  the 
ex-Intendente's  deprecating  murmur,  dying  off  into  silence. 

Beltran  spoke  easily. 

"  Excelentisimo  Senor,  pardon  us.  We  had  no  idea  we 
were  intruding  upon  you.  We  fancied  the  house  empty 
save  for  its  guardian." 


304  EL   SUPREMO 

"Perhaps  even  of  its  guardian,  eh?"  Francia  retorted, 
eyeing  the  dwarf. 

There  was  an  instant  of  silence. 

"Well,"  Franeia  continued.  "No  harm  is  done.  You 
need  not  apologise  and  I  expect  no  apologies.  You  were 
quite  justified  in  coming  here  to  shoot  partridges  and  I 
make  you  welcome.  Sit  down  and  have  some  mate." 

The  dwarf  carried  out  chairs  of  the  high-backed,  hide- 
bottomed  local  pattern;  the  fortuitous  guests  seated  them 
selves.  One  dutiful  dog  fetched  the  last  bird  to  Beltran  and 
then  all  four  curled  up  under  or  near  the  chairs. 

When  the  dwarf  brought  a  tray  with  a  steaming  urn, 
gourds,  "bombillas  and  yerba  he  offered  it  first  to  Beltran. 

"Bopi!"  Francia  admonished  him  sharply  and  motioned 
towards  Don  Bernardo. 

As  the  waddling  dwarf  corrected  his  mistake  Hawthorne 
remarked :  ' '  Another  Bopi. ' ' 

"Yes,"  Francia  agreed,  "and  has  lost  no  sheep";  add 
ing,  in  English,  in  the  dumbfounded  silence  that  ensued: 

"Let  them  alone 
And  they  weel  come  home 
Breenging  their  tails  behind  thaym." 

The  constrained  silence  deepened. 

So  mute,  they  heard  hoof -beats  of  a  dozen  horses  gallop 
ing,  galloping  towards  them  along  the  road.  Into  the  lane 
they  swung,  up  to  the  cottage  they  charged  at  top  speed, 
just  clear  of  the  corridor-eaves  they  halted,  reined  back 
on  their  haunches,  steaming  and  smoking;  on  their  backs, 
twelve  lancers,  each  with  a  carbine  slung  by  his  boot 
leg. 

Lieutenant  Rivarola  was  with  them. 

Lieutenant  Rivalora  looked  distinctly  relieved. 

"We  heard  the  shots "  he  began. 

Francia  stood  up,  his  figure  instantly  rigid,  his  eyes 
blazing.  "You  hear'd  the  shots!"  he  echoed.  "You  have 
good  ears.  You  must  have  been  a  full  mile  away. 

"You  heard  the  shots,  indeed!  They  were  shots  aimed 
at  partridges;  shots  fired  by  my  loyal  friends.  But  that 
is  no  thanks  to  you.  As  far  as  you  are  concerned  those 
shots  might  have  been  musket-shots,  shots  aimed  at  my, 


RIDES  AND   PARTRIDGES        305 

heart,  shots  fired  by  traitors.  As  far  as  you  are  concerned 
I  might  be  dead  already.  For  all  you  have  done  to  protect 
me  I  am  a  dead  man  this  moment.  You  heard  the  shots  in 
deed!" 

Rivarola  opened  his  mouth  to  speak. 

' '  Silence,  fool ! ' '  Francia  hissed.  ' '  The  facts  convict  you. 
Words  cannot  alter  the  facts.  Shots  or  no  shots,  you  were 
to  be  here  before  sunrise.  The  sun  rose  nearly  an  hour  ago. 
Look  at  it!" 

He  pointed  his  long  finger  at  the  sun. 

Rivarola  slewed  his  head  round  and  peered  at  the  sun 
with  half  a  sneer. 

Francia  flew  into  a  rage. 

"This  is  once  too  often,  sir,"  he  almost  whispered. 
"Your  incompetence  and  your  insolence  I  have  borne  too 
often  already.  Dismount ! ' ' 

Rivarola  came  instantly  to  the  salute. 

"Don  Ernesto!"  Francia  snapped.    "Your  sword !" 

When  he  had  it  in  his  hands  he  spoke  in  Guarani: 

"Ramon!  Pablo!  Jose!  Dismount  and  tether  your 
horses. ' ' 

When  the  horses  were  hobbled  and  tethered  he  ordered : 

' '  Pinion  his  arms ! ' ' 

When  Rivarola  was  trussed  he  again  addressed  the  peons. 

* t  Come  here ! 

"Let  me  see  your  cartridges!" 

He  counted  over  those  in  each  bandolier. 

"Use  but  one  apiece!"  he  admonished  them.  "When 
you  catch  up  I  shall  count  them  again.  If  more  than  one 
be  missing,  I'll  have  you  shot  also.  That  log  over  there" 
(gesturing  towards  where  Hawthorne  had  stubbed  his  toe) 
"will  suffice  for  a  banquillo.  Do  not  shoot  him  till  we  are 
all  out  of  sight.  Make  sure  he  is  dead  and  then  bury  him 
at  once.  If  you  do  not  overtake  us  before  we  reach  the 
city  ride  in  at  a  walk  and  report  at  once  to  me." 

Rivarola  stood  mute,  his  stolid  face  mottled  red  and 
white. 

The  four  sportsmen  had  stood  up  as  Francia  leapt  to  his 
feet.  They  had  stood  tense  and  mute  during  this  unex 
pected  scene.  Not  one  of  them  had  noticed  Bopi  slip  noise 
lessly  among  them  and  fasten  both  big  silver  spurs  over 
his  master's  low  shoes. 


EL   SUPREMO 

"Sorry  to  mar  our  chat,"  Francia  uttered.  "But  dis 
cipline  must  be  maintained." 

Beltran  and  Hawthorne  shouldered  their  birds  and  all 
four  intruders  bowed  themselves  off.  Even  as  he  acknowl 
edged  their  farewells  Francia  swung  himself  into  the 
saddle  of  the  horse  Bopi  had  silently  led  from  somewhere 
nearby,  and  gave  a  brief  order  to  his  lancers.  The  ten 
horses  clattered  off  down  the  lane  before  the  gentlemen  had 
passed  the  hedge. 

Out  in  the  field  the  pointers  raced  again,  came  to  a 
point,  and  put  up  each  his  bird. 

To  their  bewilderment  no  one  so  much  as  aimed  at  the 
whirring  game. 

The  four  men  trudged  in  silence. 

Half  way  up  the  hill  three  musket-shots  rang  out  almost 
as  one. 

Don  Bernardo  bowed  his  head,  sank  on  one  knee  into 
the  attitude  most  of  the  men  had  assumed  in  the  Cathedral 
the  previous  Sunday,  and  recited  the  prayers  for  the  dying. 

The  others  uncovered  likewise  and  repeated  the  responses 
whenever  he  paused,  Hawthorne,  who  had  long  ago  learned 
the  prayers  current  in  Spanish  America,  chiming  in  with 
Beltran  and  Mayorga. 

When  the  ex-Intendente  stood  up  Don  Vicente  remarked : 

*  *  A  terrible  man !  who  would  have  dreamed  it  when  he 
was  a  mere  tinterillo!  What  a  thunderbolt!" 

"Simon  Bolivar  is  almost  such  another,"  said  Haw 
thorne. 

' '  He  reminds  me  of  the  Emperor, ' '  Beltran  added.  ' '  The 
same  decision,  the  same  ruthlessness,  the  same  prompt 
ness." 

"Perhaps  it  was  my  duty  to  my  fellow-Spaniards,"  Don 
Bernardo  spoke,  "perhaps  it  was  my  duty  to  my  King, 
perhaps  it  was  my  duty  to  my  God  to  exhibit  such  prompt 
and  ruthless  decision.  If  so  I  humble  myself  before  my 
Maker  and  beg  his  forgiveness,  ask  pardon  of  my  King, 
crave  indulgence  from  my  fellow  men.  But  were  I  to 
know  never  so  surely  that  I  must  suffer  ten  thousand  years 
of  purgatory,  that  I  must  burn  in  hell  forever,  yet  could  I 
not  compass  such  inexorable  harshness.  And,  I  thank  God, 
whatever  my  duty  was,  whatever  my  remissness  has  been, 
that  he  created  me  as  I  am  and  not  as  that  man." 


BOOK  HI 
VENTUBA 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

LOCALITIES    AND    CHARACTERS 
(1) 

ASUNCION,  as  it  is  to-day,  stands  on  the  site,  or  more 
than  the  site,  which  has  been  called  by  that  name  since 
1536.  But  the  old  Asuncion,  as  it  still  was  in  1816,  has 
vanished  almost  as  completely  as  the  lost  Atlantis. 

To  be  sure,  the  building  in  which  the  Post-office  and 
Telegraph  Departments  are  now  officed,  called  from  them 
Correos  y  Telegrafos,  is  the  very  old  Palacio  or  Cabildo  of 
Francia's  Asuncion,  scarcely  altered  from  what  it  was 
when  Hawthorne  saw  it  or  from  what  it  may  have  been  in 
Irala's  time,  if  indeed,  as  legend  had  it,  Irala  was  its 
builder.  Also  the  body  of  the  Cathedral  is  mainly  as  it 
was  a  hundred  years  agone,  though  the  squab  tower  then 
at  its  south-west  corner  was  torn  down  more  than  fifty  years 
ago,  to  maRe  way  for  the  present  hideous  facade  with  its 
two  belfries. 

But  no  other  building  from  those  days  survives  to  these. 
The  church  of  San  Roque  stands,  to-day,  just  where  the 
same  saint's  church  stood  then,  but  it  is  not  the  same  build 
ing,  and  the  church  of  the  Incarnation  is  not  only  a  modern 
structure  but  is  situated  at  some  distance  from  the  location 
of  the  old  Iglesia  de  la  Encarnacian. 

The  noble  amphitheatre  of  low  hills  sloping  towards  the 
river  has  been  little  altered  by  the  rudimentary  attempts 
at  grading  common  to  most  South  American  municipalities. 
But  it  now  faces  a  broad,  shallowish  lagoon  opening  west 
wards  into  the  shrunken  stream  of  the  River  Paraguay, 
which  has,  in  the  past  century,  carved  for  itself  a  new 
channel  in  a  curve  swinging  considerably  to  the  northwest. 
Hawthorne,  gazing  northward  where  now  extends  the  slug 
gish  lagoon,  saw  the  stately  Rio  Paraguay,  its  mighty  cur 
rent  running  full  three  miles  an  hour,  sweep  majestically 
past  the  city's  waterfront,  spreading  more  than  a  thousand 
yards  of  its  placid  surface  between  the  capital  of  the  re- 

309 


310  EL   SUPREMO 

ASUNCION,  PARAGUAY,  IN  1809 

FROM  THE  PLAN  GIVEN  BY  FELIX  DE  AZARA  IN  ' '  VOYAGES  DANS 
L'AMERIQUE  MERIDIONALE" 


(For  explanation  of  the  Reference  Letters  see  the  next 

page.] 


LOCALITIES   AND    CHARACTERS    311: 

EEFERENCES  IN  AZARA'S  PLAN  OF  ASUNCION 

TO   LOCALITIES   MENTIONED   IN   THE 

NARRATIVE 


A  Mayorga's  House. 

B  Recalde's  House. 

C  Velarde's  House. 

D  The  Barracks. 

E  The  Public  Prison. 

F  Casal's  House. 

G  Estagarribia's  House. 

H  Bargas'  Wine-shop. 

J  El  Zapo's  Cottage. 

K  The  Plaza. 

L  The  Old  Palacio,  also  called  the  Cabildo. 

M  The  Palacio. 

N  The  Riachuelo,  the  inlet  lagoon. 

0  The  Dominican  Convent. 

P  The  Franciscan  Convent. 

Q  The  Convent  of  Mercy. 

E  The  Encarnacion  Church. 

S  The  Cathedral. 


312  EL   SUPREMO 

public  and  the  wild  further  bank  from  which  began  the 
savage  wildernesses  of  the  Gran  Chaco. 

The  river-front  of  the  lagoon  as  it  now  exists  is  much 
further  out  than  the  bold,  low  bluffs  formerly  lining  the 
bathing-shore,  wharfage-quay  and  anchorage  along  the 
strong-flowing  Rio  Paraguay.  The  Jesuits'  bridge,  the 
inlet-lagoon  whose  neck  it  spanned,  the  brook  that  flowed 
into  it,  crossed  by  three  small  stone  bridges,  the  stretches 
of  swamp,  marsh,  bog  and  slough  that  extended  from  the 
brook,  drained  into  it  and  the  inlet-lagoon,  and  formed 
together  with  them  the  "Eiachuelo"  of  those  days:  these 
have  all  but  disappeared,  dried  up,  filled  in  or  graded 
over.  Scarcely  a  trace  remains  of  them. 

The  rectilinear  avenues  of  the  modern  city  had  not  then 
been  laid  off,  surveyed  nor  so  much  as  thought  of.  Asun 
cion  alone  of  the  considerable  cities  of  the  continent  had 
come  into  being  before  the  decree  of  a  King  at  Madrid 
imposed  upon  all  towns  of  Spanish  America  one  unvarying 
pattern  of  square  Plaza  and  gridiron  of  streets  and  had 
escaped  remodelling  to  the  same  monotonous  rectangular 
uniformity.  Old  Asuncion  had  never  been  laid  off ;  it  had 
grown  at  haphazard,  as  the  trails  radiating  from  Irala's 
entrenched  and  stockaded  fortress  grew  to  be  highways, 
and  the  cross-tracks  between  them  developed  into  roads; 
as  the  estancias  about  the  capital  of  the  Intendencia  split 
up  into  chacaras  and  the  chacaras  divided  and  subdivided 
into  market-garden  farms  and  house-gardens ;  as  the  boun 
dary-outlines  defining  the  properties  and  the  paths  connect 
ing  them  determined  their  location;  so  there  grew  up  in 
the  suburbs  a  network  of  winding  lanes  which,  nearer  the 
Plaza,  became,  in  time,  crooked  streets.  Straightish  streets 
there  were  but  three:  Calle  Espinosa,  on  which  Dr.  Bargas' 
wine-shop  fronted,  leading  from  nowhere  to  nowhere,  from 
the  frayed  fringe  of  slough  at  the  head  of  the  Riackuelo 
rivulet  to  the  forking  bog  at  the  head  of  the  long  marsh 
feeding  Payagua  Brook;  Calle  Pombal,  nearly  parallel  to 
it,  past  the  rear  wall  of  Dr.  Bargas'  property;  and  Calle 
Comercio,  with  its  line  of  shop-corridors  along  the  south 
west  side  of  the  Cathedral  Plaza.  Not  a  yard  of  these 
was  paved.  The  beginning  of  Calle  Conception,  where  it 
started  from  the  Cathedral  Plaza  at  right  angles  to  Calle 
Comer cio,  was  Straightish  for  about  a  hundred  yards,  but  it 


LOCALITIES   AND    CHARACTERS    313 

thereafter  became  even  more  tortuous  than  most  of  the 
Streets,  and  after  winding  for  half  a  mile  suddenly  ceased 
at  a  cross-lane  behind  the  convent  of  the  Mercedarios. 

The  military  barracks  were  far  out  of  town  somewhere 
between  the  modern  locations  of  the  Plaza  de  los  Patricias 
and  the  Mangrullo  Cemetery.  The  suburban  lanes  were 
mere  cart-tracks  between  cactus  or  aloe  hedges  overshaded 
by  orange  trees.  Few  dwellings  stood  close  to  any,  and 
those  in  the  gardens  were  mostly  two-room  hovels,  their 
roofs  and  those  of  their  tiny  porticoes  thatched  with  palm- 
leaves. 

The  huts  of  the  better  class  of  labourers,  the  small 
houses  of  the  artisans  were  generally  roofed  with  split- 
palm  trunks  laid  the  under  layer  hollow  up,  the  upper 
layer  curve  up,  interlocking  like  roof -tiles.  These,  like  the 
hovels,  were  all  mud-floored. 

The  scattered  houses  in  the  suburbs  mostly  stood  well 
back  from  the  lanes,  with  orange  or  palm  trees  about  them. 
But  some  faced  immediately  on  the  road-ways,  so  that  the 
front  door  of  each  main  apartment  opened  under  the  por 
tico  directly  on  the  highway.  Nearer  the  centre  of  the  town 
these  jostled  each  other  and  formed  irregular,  sinuous  or 
curving  streets.  Such  were  tile-roofed.  Not  a  full  dozen 
mansions  in  the  entire  city  had  azoteas,  flat  roofs  to  which 
the  dwellers  resorted  on  hot  nights,  and  of  which  they 
were  justly  proud.  There  were  then  in  all  Asuncion  but 
five  really  fine  private  residences  built  around  generous 
patios:  the  disused  and  shuttered  Casal  mansion  on  Calle 
Espinosa  and  Calle  Pombal  occupying  a  square  to  itself 
next  Dr.  Bargas '  property :  the  former  Rodriguez  mansion 
next  the  convent  of  the  Mercedarios,  then  owned  and  occu 
pied  by  Don  Gumesindo  Estagarribia ;  the  Recalde  and 
Mayorga  houses  more  or  less  between  the  Mercedarios  and 
the  Franciscans,  and  the  closed  and  almost  abandoned 
Velarde  mansion  next  the  Franciscan  monastery.  The 
abodes  of  the  Figueredos,  Jovellanoses,  Echagiies,  and  the 
rest  of  the  gentry/much  as  they  thought  of  themselves,  were 
cramped,  and,  at  most,  on  two  sides  only  of  their  court 
yards. 

The  four  monasteries:  the  Recoletanos  further  out  of 
town  southeastward  than  the  barracks  were  southwestward, 
the  Mercedarios  to  the  south  of  the  Plaza,  the  Franciscans 


3H  EL  SUPREMO 

eoutheastwards,  the  Dominicans  southwestwards  by  the 
river-bank,  were,  like  the  private  houses,  tile-roofed  and  of 
one  story  only,  though  the  most  imposing  and  extensive 
buildings  in  the  city  except  the  Cabildo  and  Palacio. 

The  Palacio,  now  vanished  to  the  last  foundation  stone, 
qtood  where  now  are  the  really  beautiful  cavalry  barracks. 
It  occupied  altogether  a  space  of  ground  fully  a  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  by  a  hundred  yards.  Besides  the  garden 
along  the  inlet-lagoon  where  Francia  and  Hawthorne 
supped  under  the  orange  trees  and  a  walled-off  kitchen- 
yard  next  it  further  up  the  inlet,  it  had  four  patios:  the 
fore-court  with  the  twelve  orange  trees  where  Francia 
transacted  business  in  fair  weather ;  the  larger  court  behind 
that,  the  buildings  about  which  Francia  used  as  his  chief 
arsenal;  the  tiny  kitchen  patio  between  the  arsenal-court 
and  the  kitchen  garden;  and  the  small  patio  on  the  other 
side  of  the  arsenal-court,  towards  the  Cabildo,  which  Es- 
pinosa  had  turned  into  a  tobacco- warehouse  and  cigar  fac 
tory.  The  portion  of  the  Palacio  surrounding  this  court 
yard  was  all  of  two  stories  and  its  alto  or  second  story, 
the  only  alto  in  Asuncion,  had  windows,  not  only  inwards, 
giving  on  the  court,  but  also  outwards;  those  on  the  long 
side  looking  southeastward  over  the  roof  of  the  Cabildo; 
the  single  one  facing  northeastward  toward  the  river  open 
ing  on  that  mirador-balcony,  commanding  the  whole  Plaza, 
which  Hawthorne  had  noticed  as  he  approached  the  Palacio 
for  his  first  visit  to  Francia  and  which  overhung  the  win 
dow  at  which  Francia  had  been  accustomed  to  give  night 
audiences. 

As  the  Jesuits  had  been  not  only  large-idea  'd  in  respect 
to  extent  of  ground-plan,  but  also  builders  for  solidity,  the 
Palacio,  with  its  yard  garden,  four  patios  and  the  quondam 
Jesuit  church  at  the  east  corner  converted  into  a  grand 
sola,  was  far  and  away  the  most  impressive  building  in  the 
capital. 

(2) 

With  Asuncion  as  he  found  it,  Hawthorne  proceeded  to 
make  himself  thoroughly  acquainted,  mostly  in  rides  with 
Carmelo.  For  Hawthorne  liked  him  better  than  either  of 
his  elder  brothers.  Carmelo  talked  little  and  seldom  did 
or  said  anything  definitely  likable.  Yet  he  was  a  most 


LOCALITIES   AND   CHARACTERS 

likable  youth  and  an  excellent  companion,  whose  sunny 
smile  and  silent  comprehension  were  often  better  than, 
speech. 

From  Carmelo,  from  all  the  members  of  the  Mayorga 
household,  from  Angelica  and  Concha  Recalde  and  espe 
cially  from  Dona  Encarnacion  Figueredo,  Hawthorne  learnt 
much  Guarani.  With  Senoritas  Leite  and  Carlota  he  took 
systematic  lessons  and  toiled  over  them  several  hours  each 
day.  He  was  not  altogether  a  poor  scholar,  mastered  the 
chief  difficulties  of  the  anomalous  pronunciation,  and  ac 
quired  a  large  vocabulary ;  could  make  himself  understood, 
he  found,  in  short  sentences,  at  a  pinch;  came  to  compre 
hend  readily  whatever  was  said  to  him,  and  most  of  what 
was  said  around  him ;  but  never  attained  any  conversational 
ease  or  fluency,  and  was  dumb  before  strangers. 

His  explorations  and  lessons  in  the  vernacular  were  prose 
cuted  in  spite  of  many  interruptions,  amid  countless  dis 
tractions  and  against  the  pull  of  multitudinous  tempta 
tions. 

For  he  found  himself  a  public  character  and  almost  held 
court  at  the  Mayorga  mansion.  The  story  of  Francia's 
demeanour  towards  him  at  the  fiesta  at  Itapua  had  been 
spread  all  over  Asuncion  and  had  given  him  universal 
notoriety  as  a  man  with  whom  it  were  well  to  curry  favour 
at  any  cost.  The  fame  of  his  incredible  success  as  inter 
cessor  for  the  Chilabers  and  Don  Cristobal  de  Maria  ran 
like  wild-fire  from  house  to  house  among  the  gentry  and 
made  him  renowned,  almost  illustrious.  Every  human 
being  had  heard  of  his  having  pleased  the  Dictator  by  his- 
horsemanship,  after  having  been  accorded  the  honour  of 
a  review  for  his  personal  benefit.  A  considerable  propor 
tion  of  the  inhabitants  had  seen  him  ride  at  Francia's  left 
stirrup ;  some  had  seen  him  pass  their  abodes  riding  before 
the  Dictator. 

Therefore  he  was  overwhelmed  with  visits  and  presents: 
visits,  not  only  from  his  fellow-conspirators,  the  acquain 
tances  he  had  made  at  Don  Vicente's  or  Dona  Juana's, 
their  relations  and  friends,  but  even  from  persons  he  had 
never  met  before  and  who  were  entirely  unconnected  with 
any  one  he  knew ;  presents,  most  embarrassing  presents, 
from  a  great  proportion  of  his  visitors. 

Dona  Juana  had  already  supplied  him  with  a  man- 


316  EL   SUPREMO 

servant  and  mounts,  two  fine  horses  from  the  Itapua  po- 
trero,  blood-bays  of  Beltran's  own  selection,  and  a  cream- 
coloured  mule  for  the  mulatto  boy,  who  was  named  Tol- 
omeo,  adored  Hawthorne  at  first  sight,  and  became  his 
very  shadow.  Being  already  even  oversupplied,  it  was  easy 
to  decline  gifts  of  horseflesh  and  proffers  of  desirable 
valets. 

With  other  presents  it  was  different ;  a  ring  of  brilliants 
he  had  admired  on  Don  Gumesindo's  finger;  a  gold  snuff 
box  Don  Cipriano  Domeque  had  overheard  him  praise; 
these  Don  Vicente  warned  him  he  could  by  no  means  avoid 
accepting  any  more  than  the  imported  cordials,  rare  liquors, 
old  wines,  petacones  of  cigars  and  packages  of  leaf-tobacco 
which  came  to  him  in  unwelcome,  quantities  from  the  men, 
or  the  profusion  of  fruits,  preserved  fruits,  conserved  fruits, 
sweetmeats,  exquisite  tambour  embroideries,  delicate  nan- 
duty  lace  and  rich  filigree  work  which  poured  in  upon  him 
from  their  wives. 

He  would  gladly  have  returned,  if  it  had  been  possible, 
the  beautifully  chased  and  carved  fowling-piece  which  Don 
Cristobal  sent  him.  But  this  gift  touched  and  pleased  him. 
He  should  have  wanted  to  express  his  gratitude  in  some 
such  way  had  his  and  Don  Cristobal's  places  been  inter 
changed:  he  comprehended  the  liberated  gentleman's  feel 
ings.  The  other  gifts  merely  disgusted  him. 

Clumsy  old  Arsenio  Dominguez,  all  importance  in  his 
suit  of  doctor's  black,  himself  brought  him  a  bottle  of 
Ouarani  eye-lotion;  and  it  was  impossible  to  be  displeased 
either  with  the  gift  or  the  giver,  for  the  lotion  was  likely 
to  be  useful,  and  Doctor  Arsenio  was  comical. 

The  Malvinas  pointer  Don  Estanislao  Machain  presented 
him  with  pleased  him,  of  course.  The  hardest  heart  could 
not  but  melt  when  a  Malvinas  pointer  wagged  his  tail  in 
recognition  of  a  new  master,  laid  his  head  on  his  knee,  and 
swore  fealty  dumbly  with  those  expressive  eyes.  He  named 
the  dog  Hero,  scarcely  an  original  or  novel  name  for  a 
dog,  but  one  that  suited  Hawthorne.  And  they  became 
friends  and  inseparables. 

But  the  donor  nauseated  him.  And  even  more  than  the 
gifts  his  visitors  revolted  him.  Not  one  but  had,  like  the 
fawners  crowding  round  him  at  Itapua,  some  definite  spe 
cific  request  to  make,  some  personal  profit  for  him  to 


LOCALITIES   AND    CHARACTERS    317 

further  by  discreet  influence  with  the  Dictator.  Their  self- 
seeking  was  grossly  manifest.  But  grossly  manifest  only 
after  they  had  taken  their  departure  and  time  had  elapsed 
for  meditation.  At  the  moment  of  its  presentation  the 
crudest  greed  was  veiled  so  ingeniously,  the  baldest  rapacity 
so  subtly  hinted,  the  most  servile  flatteries  made  so  deftly 
to  seem  the  most  natural  and  spontaneous  compliments,  that 
each  visitor  gave  only  pleasure  while  his  visit  lasted. 

When  nearly  every  well-to-do  individual  in  Asuncion  had 
called  to  pay  his  respects  and  had  sent  one  or  more  gifts, 
the  tide  of  embarrassments  began  to  ebb  and  Hawthorne 
was  distinctly  relieved. 


(3) 

Of  the  sights  of  the  city  which  he  viewed  on  his  rides 
with  Carmelo  none  interested  Hawthorne  more  than  the 
shipyards,  where  small  sloops,  larger  schooners  and  brig- 
antines  and  brigs  of  moderate  tonnage  were  constantly 
under  construction.  Soloaga's  yard  had  in  it  nothing  re 
markable,  as  there  was  nothing  striking  or  unusual  about 
its  owner  and  master.  It  lay  on  the  north-west  side  of  the 
inlet-lagoon  of  the  Riachuelo,  directly  across  Plaza  San 
Domingo  from  the  Dominican  Convent,  along  an  arm  of 
the  lagoon,  which  branched  off  south-westwards  from  the 
inlet,  just  opposite  the  kitchen  garden  of  the  Palacio.  The 
Jesuits'  bridge  at  the  neck  of  the  lagoon  had  a  span  suffi 
cient  to  admit  of  the  launched  hull  of  a  respectable  brig 
being  towed  under  it.  Soloaga  masted  and  rigged  his  ves 
sels  while  at  anchor  off  the  rivera  or  harbour-frontage. 

The  other  shipyard  on  Ship-Builders'  Cove  near  the  last 
bend  in  Payagua  Brook  was  as  different  from  Soloaga's  as 
he  was  from  his  competitor.  Soloaga  was  small,  neat  and 
mild;  his  yard  always  clean  and  in  order.  The  western 
yard  was  the  home  of  dirt  and  confusion  and  was  presided 
over  by  that  "Don"  Francisco  (always  called  "Pancho" 
or  "Curro")  Riquelme  whom  Hawthorne  had  met  as  Lopez 
escorted  him  to  visit  the  prison,  and  whom  all  Asuncion 
spoke  of  and  half  Asuncion  addressed  as  "El  Zapo"  ("The 
Toad"). 

His  yard  lay  in  an  elbow  formed  by  Ship-Builders'  Cove 


318  EL   SUPREMO 

and  his  two  docks,  the  lower  wet,  the  upper  dry,  separated 
by  a  rude  lock.  Upon  a  highish  bank  on  the  side  opposite 
the  locks  his  cottage  was  perched,  with  a  small  garden- 
space  about  it,  shut  in  with  the  close  trees  of  a  considerable 
patch  of  woodland.  From  the  cottage  no  other  building 
was  visible,  except,  across  the  cove,  one  or  two  huts. 

The  patch  of  woodland  interested  Hawthorne  greatly,  as 
it  differed  from  any  he  saw  anywhere  about  Asuncion,  or 
indeed,  throughout  his  entire  stay  in  Paraguay.  When  he 
asked  the  names  of  the  trees  Carmelo  replied  that  they 
had  no  name  in  Spanish,  but  were  called  "Irandig"  in  Gua- 
rani.  On  Hawthorne's  objecting  that  there  were  plainly 
two  very  different  kinds  of  trees  interspersed,  Carmelo  ex 
plained  that  one  was  called  the  light  irandig  and  the  other 
the  dark  irandig. 

The  dark  irandigs  were  not  in  the  least  like  hemlocks 
nor  were  the  light  irandigs  in  the  least  like  birches,  yet 
their  combined  effect  was  very  much  like  that  of  a  New 
England  forest  of  hemlocks  with  birches  intermixed,  an 
unusual  combination  which  Hawthorne  had  known  well 
near  his  home.  The  absence  of  underwood,  the  clean, 
straight  stems  of  the  dark  trees,  the  feathery  leafage  of 
the  lighter  trees,  all  contributed  to  this  impression. 

As  he  afterwards  noticed,  this  peculiar  growth  of  trees 
extended  over  the  entire  semi-peninsula  bounded  by  Ship- 
Builders'  Cove,  Payagua  Brook,  and  the  river.  Hemmed 
in  by  these  open-trunked  trees,  El  Zapo's  cottage  squatted 
in  its  tiny  garden,  isolated  from  all  the  rest  of  the  city. 

In  the  yard  his  negro  and  mulatto  slaves,  all  in  rags, 
all  showing  the  marks  of  stripes,  old  and  recent,  all  under* 
fed,  laboured  incessantly  with  broad-axes,  adzes,  saws,  au 
gers  or  hammers.  Their  master  seldom  condescended  to 
any  manual  toil,  except  when  some  ticklish  and  exacting  bit 
of  work  called  for  the  exercise  of  superior  skill. 

Mostly  he  sat  on  a  big,  solid  seat,  something  between  an 
overgrown  stool  and  a  stumpy  bench,  a  seat  without  arms 
or  back,  set  behind  the  balusters  edging  the  tiny  upper 
portico,  open  all  along  its  front,  but  roofed  in,  which  sur 
mounted  his  verandah.  From  this  point  of  vantage  he 
tyrannised  over  his  domain,  mostly  leaning  his  triple  chin 
on  his  great  hairy  arms,  crossed  on  the  rails  of  the  balus 
trade.  So  seated  he  had  a  habit  of  sticking  out  his  under 


LOCALITIES   AND   CHARACTERS    319 

lip  till  it  almost  reached  the  tip  of  his  nose,  knitting  and 
relaxing  his  black,  shaggy  eyebrows  and  wagging  his  large 
flat  ears.  Thus  silently  occupied,  he  was  even  more  hideous 
than  when  his  countenance  was  in  repose  with  his  chops 
bagging  pendulously  and  his  lower  lip  slack  and  slobbering. 

If  any  of  his  workmen  did  anything  amiss,  he  knitted  his 
brows  till  his  face  looked  like  soaked  leather  dried  in  the 
sun,  removed  the  eternal  cigarillo  from  his  lips,  and  sent 
the  inarticulate  beginnings  of  a  bellow  booming  across  the 
yard.  At  the  sound  of  it  half  the  slaves  began  to  bungle 
at  their  work,  shaking  with  terror.  This  prelusive  reboa- 
tion  would  be  followed  by  a  sort  of  combination  of  wheezy 
gasp  and  moaning  snarl  during  the  emission  of  which  the 
stammering  giant  gradually  found  human  voice,  a  voice 
raucous  as  a  jangled  gong  and  stentorian  as  a  boatswain 's. 
Then  the  Cove,  docks  and  yards  re-echoed  with  a  clangorous 
mixture  of  Basque,  Spanish  and  Guarani  profanity,  which 
choked  into  stutterings  and  trailed  off  into  a  sort  of  gur 
gling  howl. 

This  exhibition  of  infuriated  brutality  recurred  many 
times  each  day,  and  he  spent  nearly  all  of  each  day  behind 
the  balusters  of  that  balcony  where  the  roof  sheltered  him 
from  the  sun  and  he  could  catch  every  breath  of  breeze. 
There  he  ate  all  his  meals,  which  were  frequent  and  numer 
ous,  for  he  gorged  at  intervals  from  daylight  till  dark. 

On  a  small  table  by  him  were  always  a  bottle  of  aguar 
diente  by  a  small  glass,  and  a  big  Spanish  goblet  by  a  great 
flagon  of  dark  Benicarlo  wine  and  a  fat  jug  of  the  thick 
white  wine  of  Mendoza.  There  was  always  a  pitcher  on 
that  table  to  dip  into  the  tall  red  earthenware  water  jar 
that  stood  by  it,  but  this  El  Zapo  used  principally  to  pour 
over  his  head  when  in  danger  of  apoplexy  at  the  crisis  of 
a  fit  of  rage.  The  huge  goblet  he  drained  frequently,  the 
smaller  glass  even  oftener. 

His  bill  of  fare  was  varied  though  coarse. 

Roast  beef,  especially  came  con  cuero,  he  gorged  in  enor 
mous  quantities.  But  other  beef  dishes,  even  olla,  he  re^ 
garded  as  too  light  and  too  rapidly  digested,  as  food  that 
did  not  stay  by  a  man.  Lamb  or  fresh  fish  he  scorned  as 
frothy  and  frivolous  dishes ;  as  too  insipid,  no  matter  how 
much  garlic  was  lavished  on  their  preparation.  A  staple 
of  his  diet  was  ham,  cheap  hams,  the  older  the  better,  no 


32o  EL   SUPREMO 

matter  how  over-ripe.  These  his  wife  boiled  for  him  in 
sour  wine;  with  them  he  consumed  quantities  of  'bacalao 
or  salt  cod,  generally  also  chosen  for  its  cheapness,  and  the 
ranker  the  more  relished.  Red  herrings,  sardines  in  vine 
gar  as  well  as  in  olive  oil,  anchovies  and  shrimps  were  ac 
ceptable  relishes  to  him,  as  was  bacon,  which  he  preferred 
rancid.  Of  the  jumbled  leavings  of  all  these  comestibles 
his  wife  concocted  appalling  ragouts  of  lean  beef  or  stringy 
mutton,  half  garlic  and  acceptable  to  her  lord  in  proportion 
to  their  high  flavour  and  insistent  smell.  With  all  these 
he  swallowed  innumerable  onions,  fried  or  raw,  most  of  the 
spoiled  olives  that  found  their  way  to  Asuncion  and  moun 
tains  of  lettuce  swimming  in  Andalusian  oil. 

There  was  a  bridle-path  along  the  south  margin  of  his 
docks,  and  Hawthorne  often  passed  that  way  with  Carmelo 
and  reined  up  to  watch  him  rolling  from  side  to  side, 
heaving  and  lurching  his  great  bulk  like  a  caged  animal, 
and  to  listen  to  his  blaring  yawps  and  clucking  croaks. 

But  at  a  whiff  of  his  wife's  cooking  they  generally 
spurred  on. 

"It's  like  nothing  else  on  earth,  I'll  wager,"  Carmelo 
regularly  remarked. 

"It  is  like  something  I  have  smelt  before,"  said  Haw 
thorne  on  the  first  occasion.  "But  I  cannot  recall  when 
or  where.  It's  so  bad  I  ought  to  remember." 

But  when  they  forded  Payagua  brook  and  came  upon  the 
tolderia  of  those  "English"  Indians,  if  the  wind  set  from 
the  toldos  towards  them,  they  vowed  El  Zapo's  kitchen 
smelled  good,  and  not  only  spurred  but  flogged  to  get 
away. 

"Worst  smell  on  earth!"  said  Carmelo. 

"They  smell  very  like  the  toldos  of  the  Telhueches  near 
Buenos  Aires,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "and  not  much  worse. 
I've  smelt  something  like  that,  I  suppose,  at  every  Indian 
tolderia  I  ever  passed.  Probably  that's  why  the  stench 
seemed  familiar  the  first  time  I  smelled  it." 

"Worst  smell  on  earth!"  Carmelo  repeated. 

"To  my  nose,"  Hawthorne  declared,  "the  shambles  have 
a  far  worse  odour." 

In  fact,  one  visit  to  the  local  butchering  ground  was 
more  than  enough  for  Hawthorne. 

It  had  corrals  for  cattle  all  about  it  on  three  sides;  on 


LOCALITIES   AND    CHARACTERS     321 

the  fourth,  warehouses,  sheds,  barns,  Caracas  or  galpones 
for  storing  hides.  Blood  of  slaughtered  cattle  soaked  the 
earth;  skulls,  skeletons,  carcasses  lay  about.  Ducks,  fowls 
and  turkeys  were  squabbling  over  scraps ;  pigs  were  gorg 
ing  amid  the  offal  and  dogs  fighting  for  bones.  River-gulls, 
crows,  carrion-crows,  vultures,  even  king- vultures  skimmed, 
wheeled  and  hovered  over  the  space,  almost  darkening  the 
air.  Every  inch  of  the  ground  was  festering  in  4:he  blazing 
sun ;  and  the  effluvia  emitted  by  the  tallow-trying  shed,  the 
heaps  of  hides,  the  sodden  earth,  the  fresh-killed  animals 
and  the  decayed  carcasses  were  fairly  insupportable. 

But  the  shambles,  the  Payagua  tolderia,  and  the  lee-side 
of  El  Zapo  's  kitchen  were  the  only  ill-smelling  places  in  all 
Asuncion,  as  Hawthorne  knew  it.  In  so  few  neighbour 
hoods  were  the  buildings  at  all  crowded,  so  generally  were 
the  dwellings  separated  and  scattered,  so  universal  were 
gardens,  hedges  and  trees,  that  the  city  had  mostly  the 
clean,  healthy  air  of  open  country. 


(4) 

The  people  too  were  clean,  notably  clean.  Except  the 
few  beggars. 

As  in  Buenos  Aires,  Hawthorne  found  beggary  a  recog 
nised  occupation,  almost  an  honourable  profession.  Also, 
as  further  down  the  river,  a  beggar  was  spoken  of  as  a 
"Pordiosero,"  a  1 '  Forgodssaker, ' '  from  their  everlasting 
reiteration  of  "por  Dios"  or  "por  el  amor  de  Dios,"  "for 
God's  sake."  On  the  plea  of  "for  God's  sake,"  they 
made  a  good  living.  But  ^vhereas  in  Buenos  Aires  the 
Pordiosero  went  about  on  horseback,  his  great  toes  hooked 
into  the  loops  of  raw  hide  that  served  him  for  stirrup 
leathers  and  stirrups,  behind  him  a  wallet  and  hide  candle- 
box;  even  riding,  as  a  matter  of  course,  into  the  courtyard 
of  a  handsome  mansion  and  waiting  to  be  served;  likely 
enough  going  home  before  noon  with  a  supply  of  alfalfa 
for  his  nag,  with  beef,  mutton,  bacon,  fish,  a  brace  or  two 
of  partridges  or  a  small  armadillo  perhaps;  vegetables, 
Jruit  and  even  wine  and  spare  cash  for  himself :  the  Pordi- 
oseros  of  Asuncion  went  about  on  foot.  Little  cash  any 
one  of  them  ever  saw,  less  did  any  one  of  them  ever  touch, 


322  EL   SUPREMO 

for  gold  coin  was  all  but  non-existent  in  Paraguay,  silver 
scarce,  and  even  copper  far  from  plentiful.  Food,  how 
ever,  was  abundant,  and  the  market  women,  kind-hearted 
and  easy-going,  held  to  a  pious  belief  that  the  heavenly 
powers  would  return  them  two-fold  or  even  four-fold  what 
they  gave  "por  el  amor  de  Dios."  So  the  Pordioseros  made 
a  comfortable  livelihood  for  themselves. 

Preeminent  among  them  was  Pai  Mbatu,  once  an  as 
pirant  to  the  priesthood  and  accorded  the  title  of  "Padre" 
or  "Pai"  as  a  sort  of  solace,  although  he  had  never  at 
tained  even  to  minor  orders,  being  barely  more  than  half 
witted.  In  lax,  indulgent  Asuncion  objection  was  made 
by  no  one,  high  or  low,  to  his  wearing  the  cast-off  shovel- 
hat  and  cassock  of  some  charitable  clergyman.  He  almost 
believed  himself  a  cleric,  expecting  and  exacting  the  def 
erence  due  to  his  habit  and  title. 

His  idea  of  his  own  importance  was  increased  by  the 
possession  of  a  faithful  servant,  sole  remnant  of  a  gentle 
manly  inheritance,  sole  reminder  that  he  had  been  born  a 
gentleman.  This  Tape  Indian  loved  him  like  a  dog  and 
followed  him  about  like  one. 

Each  day  they  went  together  to  market:  the  master  in 
the  lead,  the  servant  following  at  a  respectable  distance, 
a  large  hide  tray,  locally  called  a  tipd,  balanced  on  his 
head,  a  hide  candle-box  in  his  right  hand,  an  earthenware 
jug  in  his  left.' 

In  the  market  the  jug  was  filled  with  wine,  a  little  from 
one  vendor,  a  little  more  from  another;  the  box  grew 
heavy  with  candles  of  beef-tallow,  beeswax  or  quabird- 
wax;  the  tray  gradually  heaped  itself  with  beef,  roasting- 
ears,  manioc,  onions,  garlic,  peppers,  oranges,  pies,  tarts, 
cakes,  even  flowers  that  Pai  Mbatu  fancied;  while  there 
was  sure  to  be  at  least  one  package  of  leaf  tobacco  among 
the  contributions,  perhaps  even  a  fresh  cigar  or  two  hid 
under  the  Padre's  cassock. 

Hawthorne  once  followed  this  local  celebrity  about  the 
market  and  overheard  some  of  his  colloquies  with  the 
women. 

"I  gave  you  a  pie  only  two  months  ago.  Ask  Fruela; 
she  has  given  you  nothing  these  four  months. ' ' 

And  when  her  neighbour  also  objected,  Pai  Mbatu  be 
gan  to  jabber  odd  tags  of  half -remembered  Latin  sufficient 


LOCALITIES   AND    CHARACTERS    323 

to  make  poor  Fruela  suppose  he  was  commencing  an  in 
cantation.  This  conjecture  he  confirmed  by  waving  in 
circles  his  cane,  before  which  Fruela  shrunk  away  as  if  it 
had  been  a  sorcerer's  wand.  The  cane  described  narrower 
and  narrower  circles,  the  jabber  of  the  Latin  became  louder 
and  louder,  and  while  poor  Fruela  crossed  herself  and 
mumbled  an  Ave  as  an  exorcism,  the  spike  on  the  end  of 
the  cane  transfixed  a  tempting  tart  and  instantly  Pai 
Mbatu,  like  an  angler  striking  a  half-hooked  fish,  gave  a 
dexterous  jerk  and  landed  the  tart  in  the  tipd. 

Pai  Mbatu  was  half  clean.  None  of  the  other  Pordio- 
seros  were  clean  in  any  respect;  all  mere  masses  of  filthy 
rags  over  emaciated  bodies.  Why  emaciated  Hawthorne 
could  not  conjecture,  for  all  seemed  well-fed  on  charity. 
Yet  lean  limbs,  staring  joints  and  ribby  bodies  were  the 
mark  of  the  Asuncion  Pordioseros. 

Hawthorne  had  the  curiosity  to  enquire  the  location  of 
Pai  Mbatu 's  abode,  and  to  observe  it  on  returning  from  one 
of  his  early  morning  rides.  It  was  almost  at  the  edge  of 
the  city,  south  of  the  Franciscan  Convent  where  some 
fifty  or  sixty  mean  little  huts,  with  long  intervals  between, 
formed  the  last  fringe  of  urban  habitations. 

Of  these  Pai  Mbatu 's  was  the  meanest :  a  mud  hut,  palm- 
thatched,  nestled  among  banana  and  orange  trees.  Yet 
even  it  had  two  minute  huts  behind  it:  one  for  the  Tape 
Indian,  one  for  the  cookery.  Under  the  tiny  portico  of 
the  hut  Hawthorne  was  astonished  to  descry  Benito  and 
amazed  to  see  that  he  was  manifestly  chaffering  for  eat 
ables. 

On  returning  to  the  Mayorgas,  he  told  what  he  had  seen 
and  asked  questions.  The  family  in  chorus  or  one  chiming 
in  after  the  other,  explained  that,  of  course,  Pai  Mbatu 
and  his  Tape  had  to  have  clothing  and  spare  cash  as  well 
as  food,  so  he  begged  each  day  more  than  he  needed  and 
sold  the  surplus;  that  Benito  was  canny  and  bought  his 
master's  food  and  other  supplies  wherever  they  cost  least, 
getting  much  at  half  price  from  Mbatu,  whom  they  had 
cost  nothing. 

After  the  explanations  had  lost  their  interest  and  the 
rest  of  the  family  had  formed  groups,  conversing  ab- 
sorbedly  on  other  topics,  Carlota,  who  sat  next  Hawthorne, 
demurely  busy  over  her  embroidery  hoop,  replying  to  his 


324  EL   SUPREMO 

remark  that  Mbatu  was  assuredly  the  most  extraordinary 
beggar  anywhere  on  earth,  put  the  query : 

''Did  you  notice  the  next  hovel  but  one  east  of  Pai 
Mbatu 's?" 

"I  don't  recall  it,"  Hawthorne  answered. 

"It  is  fresh  lime-washed,"  Carlota  prompted;  "bright 
pink  all  over  except  the  corners,  and  they  are  bright  blue." 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  admitted,  "I  couldn't  help  noticing 
it.  But  there  was  no  one  under  the  corridor  and  the  win 
dows  were  shuttered  fast." 

"With  bright  blue  shutters,"  Carlota  amplified.  "They 
are  always  closed  all  day,  but  sometimes  open  at  night.  And 
sometimes  you  can  see  Cosme  under  the  portico  even  in  the 
daytime.  He  is  a  mulatto,  with  two  good  eyes,  and  serves 
the  most  extraordinary  Pordiosero  in  Asuncion  or  else' 
where,  a  beggar  once  a  man  of  good  family,  they  say.  He 
is  called  Pai  Gaspar,  and  never  goes  abroad  by  day.  Cosme 
does  all  his  begging  for  him,  and  folks  are  generous  to 
him.  They  say  Pai  Gaspar  took  a  vow  to  let  no  human 
being  see  his  face  by  daylight.  But  at  night  he  can  be 
dimly  seen  under  his  verandah.  The  other  Pordioseros 
say  that  he  wanders  about  the  wharves  on  starlit  nights, 
but  never  by  moonlight.  Benito  buys  of  Cosme  as  well  as 
of  Pai  Mbatu 's  Tape." 

1  i  And  the  charitable  give  lavishly  to  a  beggar  they  never 
see?"  Hawthorne  exclaimed. 

"Of  course,"  Carlota  concluded;  "to  refuse  the  needy 
would  be  bad  luck." 

(5) 

At  least  once  a  week  Hawthorne  was  invited  to  accom 
pany  the  Dictator  on  his  afternoon  ride.  Generally  they 
went  out  to  the  barracks  and  reviewed  the  troops.  But 
once  Francia,  without  warning  or  explanation,  led  his  guest 
on  a  long  and  apparently  aimless  ramble  through  endless 
alternations  of  high-roads  and  cross-lanes,  far  out  into  the 
country  southward,  in  a  circuit  about  Lambare.  And  once, 
with  the  politest  preliminary  announcement  of  his  inten 
tion  and  queries  as  to  Hawthorne 's  inclination,  they  visited 
together  the  tiny  cottage  at  Ibirai.  There  he  displayed 
the  interior  of  his  former  abode,  a  filthy  little  kitchen,  a 


A   FLASH   OF   LIGHTNING        325 

bedroom  bleak  and  comfortless  as  a  Jesuit 's,  and  the  study, 
the  largest  room  in  the  house,  but,  even  so,  cramped,  mean 
and  dark.  It  was  thick  with  dust,  the  dust  of  years,  but 
otherwise  might  have  been  vacated  the  day  before.  Gut 
tered  candles  were  yet  in  the  cheap  earthenware  candle 
sticks,  the  table  was  encumbered  with  a  deep  litter  of 
papers,  the  brick  of  the  floor  mostly  hidden  under  just 
such  rubbish  as  defiled  the  study  in  the  Palacio.  The  book 
shelves  were  mostly  bare,  but  one,  about  shoulder-high, 
held  some  three  or  four  dozen  books  of  varying  sizes. 

' '  Not  worth  moving  to  the  city, ' '  Francia  explained. 

Hawthorne  wanted  to  ask  under  which  window  had  oc 
curred  the  tragedy  of  the  mother  and  child.  But,  eyeing 
the  log  on  which  Kivarola  had  sat  to  be  shot,  he  somehow 
hesitated  to  speak. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

A  FLASH   OF  LIGHTNING 
(1) 

NEARLY  every  morning,  going  early  to  escape  the 
heat,  Hawthorne  paid  a  visit  to  the  public  prison  for 
the  sake  of  getting  a  glimpse  of  Cecilia.  Scarcely  more 
than  a  glimpse  did  he  get,  for  she  maintained  her  distant 
reserve  and  gave  him  no  encouragement  to  linger. 

"Within  four  days  after  the  first  alleviation  of  her  con 
dition  he  found  her  busily  seeding  cotton.  In  those  days 
all  cotton  spun  and  woven  in  South  America  was  labori 
ously  seeded  by  hand,  as  when  first  introduced;  for  the 
cotton-gin  had  not  yet  reached  any  part  of  the  continent, 
least  of  all  Paraguay. 

The  next  day  Cecilia  was  carding  cotton,  while  her  old 
negress  was  clumsily  seeding.  A  few  days  later  both  ne- 
gresses  were  seeding,  and  the  two  mulattoes  carding,  while 
Cecilia  was  spinning.  Not  many  days  passed  before  he 
found  the  Guarani  woman  with  the  baby  also  spinning,  yet 
not,  like  Cecilia,  with  a  wheel,  but  with  distaff  in  one  hand 
and  spindle  in  the  other.  The  two  mulattoes  were  at  work 


326  EL   SUPREMO 

at  a  primitive  hand-loom,  set  up  near  the  far  corner  of  the 
court  under  a  lean-to  shed  open  on  three  sides.  The  two 
negresses  were  carding  diligently,  and  several  of  the  hussies 
in  the  cell-room  were  intermittently  seeding. 

In  this  progress  of  industry  Gomez  took  great  pride,  tell 
ing  at  length  every  detail  of  the  procuring  of  the  cotton 
and  the  spinning-wheel,  and  of  the  putting  together  of  the 
loom.  In  contrast  with  his  positive  pleasure  in  the  im 
provement  of  the  condition  of  his  charges,  Cecilia  contin 
ued  her  chilly  and  forbidding  demeanour.  She  gravely 
thanked  Hawthorne  for  the  cotton,  for  the  spinning-wheel, 
for  the  loom ;  but  always  with  the  ironical  reservation  that 
she  was  told  that  he  ought  to  be  thanked  but  could  not 
really  credit  the  statement.  She  spoke  with  similar  reserve 
of  her  gratitude  for  the  visits  of  the  various  ladies  Haw 
thorne  brought  with  him.  Only  once  did  she  manifest  sc 
much  as  a  tendency  towards  being  mollified.  That  was 
when  Dona  Juana  accompanied  Hawthorne. 

The  old  lady  swept  into  the  women's  patio  as  if  she 
owned  it,  shooed  the  other  women  away  as  if  they  had  been 
hens  intruding  in  her  flower-garden,  and  sat  down  on  the 
hide-cot  by  Cecilia,  patting  her  hand  as  though  she  had 
found  a  long-lost  granddaughter. 

"My  dear,"  she  said,  "I  should  have  been  to  see  you 
long  ago,  and  I  'm  going  to  say  a  thousand  awes  at  the  altar 
of  Santa  Agueda  in  the  Church  of  the  Incarnation  and  go 
round  the  cross  in  the  Capilla  at  Itapua  four  times  on  my 
bare  knees,  saying  a  credo  at  each  corner,  as  a  penance  for 
my  lack  of  Christian  charity. 

'  *  But  I  always  did  hate  all  the  Rodriguez  clan  and  I  did 
not  reflect  that  you  were  only  accidentally  connected  with 
the  pestilential  tribe  and  essentially  and  forever  a  woman 
and  a  sister  to  me  and  all  of  us.  Or  a  daughter  to  an  old 
hag  like  me. 

"Forgive  me.  I've  come  at  last,  and  I'll  do  all  I  can 
for  you.  You're  to  leave  spinning  to  your  inferiors.  I'll 
see  you  have  needles  and  silks  and  hoops  and  all  the  rest. 
You'll  do  embroidery  and  tambouring  and  drawn- work,  as 
a  lady  should,  and  leave  coarser  arts  for  mere  women." 

In  fact,  the  very  next  day,  Hawthorne  found  the  young 
negress  at  the  loom,  and  deft  enough  at  it,  the  Guarani  and 
vthe  mulattoes  diligently  spinning ;  and  the  old  negress  idle, 


A   FLASH   OF   LIGHTNING        327 

while  the  minxes  seeded  and  carded  and  seemed  to  produce 
enough  cotton  to  keep  the  spinners  busy. 

After  she  had  an  embroidery  frame  in  her  hands,  Cecilia 
seemed  to  soften,  to  become  less  unapproachable.  Her 
thanks  to  Hawthorne  for  bringing  Dona  Juana  to  visit  her 
sounded  less  perfunctory  and  more  genuine.  He  ventured 
to  bring  her  fruit  or  flowers  nearly  every  day,  and  some 
times  both  the  same  day,  and  she  accepted  these  gifts  with 
less  frigidity  and  more  graciousness.  However,  Hawthorne 
suspected  that  they  were  distributed  among  her  fellow- 
prisoners,  not  kept  for  herself. 


(2) 

After  the  siesta  hour,  Hawthorne  by  preference  resorted 
to  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop.  There  he  found  always  one  or 
two  of  his  fellow-conspirators,  became  better  acquainted 
with  men  he  had  already  met,  and  continually  formed  new 
acquaintanceships. 

The  startling  incongruities  of  conditions  at  Asuncion  in.  v 
cessantly  astonished  him.  Don  Lisardo  's  licentiate 's  waist-  \ 
coat  and  breeches,  monk's  habit,  priest's  hat  and  Gaucho 
sabre  gave  a  sort  of  sample  of  material  and  social  discord 
ances:  the  magnificent  solid  silver  table-services  in  dining- 
rooms  with  sashless  windows  and  mud-floors ;  the  gorgeous 
and  gaudy  formal  attire  of  gentlemen  who  half  undressed 
for  meals  and  ate  served  by  naked  slave-boys  and  slave- 
girls;  the  exquisite  courtesy,  delicate  wit,  refined  humour 
and  readiness  at  rhymed  impromptus  in  gatherings  where 
mothers  narrated  minutely  the  symptoms  of  illnesses  or 
adolescence  exhibited  by  their  pretty  daughters  there  pres 
ent,  where  both  sexes  talked  of  the  bald  realities  of  exist 
ence  without  any  cloak  of  phrase ;  all  these  were  perfectly 
in  line  with  the  contrast  perpetually  exhibited  by  gentlemen 
of  the  most  aristocratic  appearance  and  patrician  manners 
displaying  incredible  ignorance  and  simplicity. 

This  was  manifested  by  what  passed  one  afternoon  at 
the  wine-shop  and  by  the  resultant  rumour  among  the  old 
Spaniards  of  the  city. 

In  a  lull  between  Dr.  Bargas'  torrential  praises  of  Men- 
doza,  abuses  of  the  shortcomings  of  Asuncion  and  its  inhab- 


328  EL   SUPREMO 

itants,  laudations  of  the  Marquess  de  Torretagle  de  Lima, 
and  dithyrambics  on  the  charms  of  his  own  perfect  spouse 
and  cherubic  youngsters,  Hawthorne  and  Don  Hilarion 
Decoud  were  talking  of  the  extent  of  England's  commerce 
and  the  volume  of  her  trade.  Several  idlers  were  listening, 
among  them  Don  Fulgencio  Yegros,  all  gigantic  in  his  gen 
eral  's  gold-laced  blue  coat,  looking  on  with  goggling  eye& 
while  the  others  talked.  Only  once  did  he  break  into 
speech. 

Don  Hilarion  had  been  putting  questions  as  to  the  ship 
ping  in  the  port  of  London,  and  Hawthorne  had  been  try 
ing  to  give  him  some  idea  of  the  number  of  vessels  and 
variety  of  merchandise.  As  an  instance,  he  cited  one  of 
the  supply-convoys  the  government  had  despatched  to  the 
Baltic  in  aid  of  Russia  during  the  wars  with  Napoleon,  giv 
ing  the  names  of  the  convoying  frigates  and  line-of-battle 
ships  and  of  the  merchantmen,  with  their  tonnage,  as  he 
had  heard  them  stated  at  Buenos  Aires,  and  going  into 
particulars  of  their  cargoes  and  the  promptness  and  rapid 
ity  of  the  lading.  He  wound  up  with  a  description  of  the 
appearance  of  London  Pool,  of  the  forest  of  masts,  of  the 
congestion  of  shipping  yet  despatch  of  traffic. 

The  big  Gaucho  rolled  himself  and  rumbled,  as  it  were, 
internally. 

When  he  spoke,  he  said,  apparently  after  deep  reflec 
tion: 

"How  fine  for  us  if  a  good  strong  south  wind  should 
spring  up  and  blow  day  and  night  until  all  those  boats 
were  blown  right  up-river  to  Asuncion,  and  kept  there  till 
they  had  to  sell  out  all  their  rich  freight ! ' ' 

Hawthorne  was  amazed  at  the  simplicity  that  recked  of 
no  water  but  the  Rio  Parana,  and  fancied  London,  like 
Buenos  Aires,  as  merely  a  town  somewhere  down  the  river. 

Don  Bernardo,  who  was  present,  remarked  to  Hawthorne 
at  the  first  opportunity : 

"The  Creoles  call  us  Spaniards  Goths  and  affect  to  de 
spise  us.  The  real  basis  of  their  hatred  is  an  uneasy  mis 
giving  that  after  all  there  may  be  some  value  in  our  wider 
knowledge  of  the  world,  in  what  they  assume  are  the  mere 
outworn  fripperies  and  effete  absurdities  of  an  obsolete  age. 
These  natives  might  be  the  better  off  for  some  of  our  cos 
mopolitan  experience. ' ' 


A   FLASH    OF   LIGHTNING         329 

About  local  matters  they  were  all  well-informed,  and 
gave  Hawthorne  endless  details  concerning  Paraguayan 
genealogies,  relationships  and  personal  characteristics.  The 
Dictator's  kinsfolk  and  connections  were  a  favourite  sub 
ject  for  conversation,  and  Hawthorne  learned  all  about  the 
Caballero  nose  and  profile,  and  its  variations  as  it  appeared 
among  the  Caballeros  themselves,  the  Francias  in  particu 
lar,  and  the  Rodriguezes  in  general,  and  all  but  vanished 
among  the  Marecoses,  Galvans  and  Mirandas.  The  story  of 
Don  Domingo  Rodriguez  was  told  and  retold,  and  Don  Do 
mingo  described  until  Hawthorne,  acutely  alive  to  every 
mention  of  Cecilia's  husband,  felt  intimately  acquainted 
with  every  feature  of  his  appearance. 

At  the  wine-shop  also  he  learned  all  that  was  generally 
known  about  the  various  prisoners  in  the  dungeons  and 
public  cuartel.  There  had  been  two  Abendanos,  it  ap 
peared:  Felicien  and  Galicien.  Galicien  had  been  in  the 
service  of  Don  Felix  de  Azara  and  had  accompanied  him 
to  Europe  when  he  returned  there  in  1801. 

In  Paris  he  had  somehow  become  acquainted  with  some 
of  the  remnants  of  the  Terrorists  and  Jacobins  and  of  that 
class  of  regicide  survivors  which  furnished  the  adherents 
and  followers  of  Moreau,  Pichegru  and  Cadoudal.  From 
them  he  imbibed  the  antiquated  notions  and  obsolete  catch 
words  of  the  early  revolutionary  period,  and  returned  to 
Paraguay  full  of  sansculottism  and  similar  rococo  ideas. 
With  these  as  a  stock-in-trade,  he  had  set  up  as  a  sort  of 
apostle  or  missionary  to  the  Guaranies  and  had  rapidly 
acquired  a  large  following  and  a  wide  vogue.  He  had 
assumed  the  title  of  Galicien  le  Fort,  Marquess  of  the 
Guaranies,  and  had  been  looked  up  to  among  his  race  as  a 
kind  of  messenger  from  Heaven.  His  brother  Felicien  had 
become  his  first  and  chief  disciple.  They  and  their  ad 
herents  had  spread  among  the  more  discontented  of  the 
Guaranies  ideas  of  liberty,  equality  and  emancipation  and 
had  fostered  unrest. 

Don  Bernardo,  who  narrated  most  of  this  to  Hawthorne, 
had  merely  laughed  at  their  antics.  But  Francia  during 
his  first  brief  period  of  power,  while  he  was  for  a  time  the 
controlling  spirit  of  the  original  junta,  had  repressed  their 
activities  and  both  had  gone  into  hiding.  Later,  when  he 
assumed  the  direction  of  affairs  on  account  of  the  panio 


330  EL   SUPREMO 

arising  from  Don  Nicolas  Herrera's  mission  to  Asuncion, 
Francia  had  hunted  both  down  relentlessly. 


(3) 

Don  Bernardo's  remarks  on  Creole  narrow-mindedness 
and  lack  of  information  were  confirmed  to  Hawthorne  a 
few  days  later.  He  was  passing  the  house  of  Don  Bermudo 
Larreta,  that  very  bald  man.  The  worthy  Don,  after  the 
fashion  of  his  kind,  was  comfortably  seated  in  an  armchair 
under  his  portico,  a  cigar  in  one  hand,  a  mate  cup  in  the 
other,  the  neck  of  his  shirt  open,  his  sleeves  rolled  up,  his 
embroidered  waistcoat  and  ample  coat  of  orange-tawny  vel 
vet  hanging  by  his  rapier  and  sword-belt  from  pegs  on  the 
wall  behind  him.  Padre  Procopio  Baca  was  seated  beside 
him,  and  the  two  were  in  a  close  confabulation.  Don  Ber 
mudo  greeted  Hawthorne  and  invited  him  to  join  them, 
beckoning  him  with  gestures  of  mysterious  purport  but 
manifest  insistency. 

When  Hawthorne  had  taken  a  chair,  he  whispered,  with 
a  great  air  of  secrecy : 

"Was  it  you,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  who  circulated  the 
marvellous  news  ?  Or,  if  not,  who  first  heard  it  ?  We  should 
like  to  know;  and  in  any  case  we  desire  your  confirmation 
of  the  report. ' ' 

"What  news  do  you  refer  to?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

' l  Have  you  not  heard  ? ' '  Don  Bermudo  exclaimed.  ' '  This 
is  indeed  a  pleasure  to  me,  to  be  the  first  to  communicate 
to  you  news  of  our  approaching  salvation,  of  the  certain 
downfall  of  the  despot." 

"You  speak  recklessly,  Senor  Don  Bermudo,"  Haw 
thorne  said.  "Be  cautious." 

* '  The  need  of  caution, ' '  said  the  bald  man,  ' '  will  soon  be 
past.  Soon  we  shall  all  be  free. ' ' 

"I  have  no  idea  what  you  are  talking  about,"  Hawthorne 
declared. 

Don  Bermudo  mopped  his  bald  head  and  was  plainly 
choosing  his  words. 

"Let  me  speak,  Pelado,"  said  Padre  Procopio.  "I  can 
be  more  succinct. ' '  And  he  continued : 

"It  is  universally  reported  about  Asuncion  that  the  great 


A   FLASH   OF   LIGHTNING        331; 

Emperor  Alessandro,  Tsar  of  all  the  Kussias,  not  content 
with  having  overthrown  the  Corsican  ogre,  not  satisfied 
with  having  twice  entered  and  occupied  Paris,  aims  at  ac 
quiring  still  greater  glory,  purposes  to  make  his  name 
trebly  illustrious  by  the  achieving  of  a  mightier  exploit. 
Touched  to  the  heart  by  what  he  hears  of  our  miseries  and 
of  the  impieties  of  the  monster,  he  designs  our  rescue  and 
the  extinction  of  the  tyrant.  A  great  flotilla,  carrying  a 
mighty  army,  provided  with  all  sorts  of  artillery,  ordnance, 
musketry  and  munitions  of  war,  convoyed  by  the  most  pow 
erful  battle-ships,  is  already  on  its  way  to  Asuncion.  There 
is  a  rumour  that  it  has  even  passed  the  Bajada,  acclaimed 
by  the  prayers  and  blessings  of  all  Europeans  and  Por- 
tenos.  This  is  the  great  news ! ' ' 

It  required  but  a  few  questions  on  Hawthorne's  part  to 
satisfy  him  that  his  illustrative  citation  of  British  aid  to 
Russia  had  been  distorted  into  this  amazing  myth  by  some 
auditor  as  ignorant  as  Don  Fulgencio.  But  nothing  he 
could  say  would  convince  Don  Bermudo  or  Pai  Procopio 
of  the  absurdity  and  baselessness  of  the  rumour. 

"While  he  was  arguing  with  them,  Rafael  Mayorga  ap 
peared  on  foot  and  evidently  in  a  great  flurry,  a  most  un 
usual  condition  for  any  South  American  and  still  more  for 
a  full-blooded  Spaniard.  At  sight  of  his  face,  and  of  its 
change  of  expression  from  troubled  anxiety  to  hopeful  re 
lief,  Hawthorne  did  not  need  any  words  to  prompt  him  to 
excuse  himself  and  hurry  off  with  Rafael. 

' '  What  is  amiss  ? "  he  enquired,  as  they  went. 

"I  do  not  know,"  Rafael  replied,  "but  Desiderio  and 
Carmelo  are  scouring  the  city  looking  for  you,  and  I  set 
out  at  once  in  this  direction.  Desiderio  is  so  upset  that  I 
conjecture  father  has  been  arrested." 

The  conjecture  proved  false,  for  they  found  Don  Vicente 
in  his  patio  with  Prior  Hermengildo  Caiiete.  The  picture 
they  made  was  so  like  that  formed  by  the  pair  Haw 
thorne  had  just  left  that,  if  they  had  been  oil  paintings, 
instead  of  living  pictures,  one  might  have  described 
them  as  two  renditions  of  the  same  subject  by  different 
painters. 

•'And  what  brings  you  back  so  soon,  Don  Guillermo?" 
Mayorga  enquired. 

When  Rafael  had  explained,  his  father  was  much  puz- 


332  EL   SUPREMO 

zled,  as  lie  knew  of  no  cause  for  perturbation  nor  any  rea 
son  for  summoning  Hawthorne.  As  they  were  making  and 
abandoning  conjectures,  Desiderio  burst  in  on  them,  evi 
dently  in  a  state  of  high-strung  emotion. 

"Di&s!"  his  father  exclaimed.  "Who  has  been  arrested 
now  ?  You  look  nearly  as  much  wrought  up  as  when  you 
confirmed  our  concern  for  poor  Alberto. ' ' 

" Nobody  has  been  arrested,  that  I  know  of,"  said  De 
siderio.  "But  there  is  something  the  matter  with  one  of 
Angelica's  eyes." 

Don  Vicente  did  not  laugh;  the  instinct  of  politeness, 
even  between  father  and  son,  was  too  strong  in  South 
America  for  any  such  crude  brutality.  He  did  smile,  how 
ever,  and  remarked: 

' '  Doubtless  one  of  Angelica 's  eyes  is  as  important  as  the 
life  of  our  best  friend. ' ' 

"I  have  been  searching  for  Don  Guillermo,"  Desiderio 
said,  ' '  to  ask  him  to  go  with  me. ' ' 

" Where?"  his  father  queried. 

"To  the  wine-shop  of  Dr.  Bargas,  I  suppose,"  Desiderio 
answered. 

' '  Why,  in  the  name  of  Heaven  ? ' '  Don  Vicente  demanded, 
bewildered. 

Desiderio  looked  sheepish. 

' '  Don  Antonio  has  called  in  all  the  doctors :  Doniinguez, 
Baiguer,  Sabola,  Narvaez.  No  one  can  conjecture  what  is 
wrong.  The  eye  waters  profusely,  but  there  is  no  sign  of 
inflammation ;  it  is  hardly  even  red.  Yet  it  hurts  horribly ; 
Angelica  has  not  slept  these  two  nights.  Something  must 
be  done  to  help  her.  Don  Antonio  has  been  so  public  in 
his  advocacy  of  native  talent  and  his  hostility  to  Don  Tomas 
that  he  fears  he  would  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
any  of  his  family.  He  knows  you  are  his  friend  and  I 
yours.  He  has  besought  me  to  ask  you  to  intercede  with 
Don  Tomas  for  him." 

"And  Dona  Tules  has  begged  you  also,"  Don  Vicente 
remarked,  "and  you  needed  no  urging." 

1 '  Nor  do  I  need  any  urging, ' '  Hawthorne  said. 

In  a  few  moments  he  was  off  with  Desiderio  to  the  wine 
shop. 

There  Parlett  was  found  not  hopelessly  drunk. 

"Damned  old  fool,"  he  said;  "serve  him  right  if  I  told 


A   FLASH    OF   LIGHTNING         333 

him  to  go  to  the  devil !  But  Angelica 's  too  pretty  to  lose 
an  eye.  Vamos!" 

At  the  Recalde  mansion  they  found  her  father,  all  pro 
fuse,  apologetic  protestations  of  esteem;  with  him  Prior 
Santiago  Reloyos,  darkly  suspicious  of  a  foreigner  and  a 
heretic,  still  more  of  an  outlander  who  set  up  to  be  a  sur 
geon,  yet  marred  his  doctorial  suit  of  black  with  a  scarlet 
cravat  and  thought  so  little  of  his  professional  dignity  that 
he  smiled,  bustled  merrily  about  showering  off-hand  greet 
ings,  rattled  away  genially,  never  listened  to  anything  said 
to  him,  and  behaved  generally  like  a  jovial  busybody,  rather 
than  as  a  staid,  grave  medico  should. 

With  the  gentlemen  was  also  Dona  Tules,  all  solicitude 
for  her  first-born. 

Angelica  came  into  the  sola,  a  tall,  graceful  sweep  of 
clinging  garments,  her  small  face  half-buried  in  a  hand 
kerchief,  the  other  half  resolute  to  smile  and  be  brave. 

Parlett  would  have  her  out  in  the  patio,  where  the  light 
was  better.  All  the  rest  followed. 

The  little  surgeon  stood  before  the  chair  she  took  at  his 
bidding,  tilted  back  her  head,  opened  and  inspected  both 
eyes,  laid  his  instrument-case  wide  on  a  chair-seat,  took 
out  a  magnifying  glass,  examined  the  right  eye,  his  stubble 
of  unshaven  chin  rasping  Angelica's  cheek,  straightened 
up  and  cried : 

' '  Ha,  ha !  We  shall  have  you  comfortable  and  easy  in  a 
'jiffy,  miss!  And  what  were  you  doing  when  this  pain 
began?" 

"It  began  quite  suddenly,"  Angelica  replied,  "while  I 
was  sorting  a  roll  of  leaf -tobacco,  picking  out  the  pale  leaves 
mother  likes  best." 

"And  you  disturbed  a  pique,  a  chigoe,  a  jigger,"  Parlett 
chattered',  "lurking  in  the  tobacco,  as  jiggers  do. 

"But  this  jigger  is  a  genius  among  insects,  or  a  fool, 
which  is  more  likely,  or  an  Irish  jigger.  Instead  of  hunting 
for  toes  to  burrow  in,  as  jiggers  should,  he  must  sample 
an  eye,  for  a  change,  and  he  jumps  at  yours,  or,  as  I  say, 
maybe  he's  a  Hibernian  jigger  by  ancestry,  and  jumps 
without  looking,  for  jumping 's  sake. 

"Anyhow,  he  jumped  at  your  eye  and  has  his  claws 
buried  in  the  pupil,  and  no  wonder  you  suffer  with  all 
tho«e  little  hooks  stabbing  into  one  of  the  tenderest  parts 


334  EL   SUPREMO 

of  you.  Likely  lie 's  as  uncomfortable  in  his  way,  and  very; 
much  astonished  at  having  hold  of  slippery  horn  with  no 
blood  in  it,  instead  of  soft,  juicy  flesh,  as  he's  used  to, 
and  his  forefathers  even  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  gen 
eration. 

''Cheer  up!  We'll  soon  have  him  out  of  that,  as 
Cortez  remarked  when  he  saw  Montezuma  on  his  palace 
roof." 

He  then  gave  orders  to  Desiderio  to  hold  open  Angelica 's 
eyelids.  When  her  parents  protested,  horrified  that  a 
young  gallant  should  lay  hands  on  an  unmarried  girl,  he 
brushed  aside  their  objections  by  a  curt: 

1 '  I  '11  choose  my  own  assistants,  thank  you,  or  give  up  the 
job  right  here." 

He  then  so  manipulated  his  pocket-microscope  and  ca 
joled  and  browbeat  Don  Antonio  and  Dona  Tules  that  both 
succeeded  in  seeing  the  jigger  plainly,  even  to  his  spread 
and  clutching  claws,  and  Padre  Santiago  must  needs  look 
also  and  be  convinced. 

"You  ought  to  be  named  Tomas  and  not  I,"  Parlett 
growled.  "You're  the  doubter." 

When  Padre  Reloyos  had  looked  his  fill,  Parlett  con 
cluded  : 

1 1  We  've  kept  the  young  lady  in  pain  long  enough.  Stand 
aside,  everybody!" 

He  rummaged  in  his  instrument-case  and  produced  a 
little  vial  of  red  precipitate. 

"Got  a  small  feather  handy,"  he  enquired,  "some  of 
those  longish,  thinnish  feathers,  as  the  gamecock  said  when 
he  gaffed  the  barnyard  rooster?" 

He  selected  a  suitable  feather  from  those  brought  him, 
dipped  it  in  the  red  precipitate,  directed  Desiderio  to  hold 
Angelica's  eyelids  apart,  stroked  the  eye-ball  with  the 
feather,  called  for  some  of  the  best  olive  oil,  waited  a  while,, 
anointed  the  eye  with  the  oil  to  remove  the  precipitate,  and 
when  Angelica  declared  that  the  pain  had  vanished  tri 
umphantly  bade  Desiderio  hold  the  eye  open  again,  and  so 
dominated  the  gathering  that  not  only  her  father  and 
mother  peered  through  the  microscope  into  Angelica's  eye 
and  saw  for  themselves  that  the  jigger  was  gone,  but  Prior 
Santiago  did  the  like. 

He  was  dumbfounded. 


A    FLASH    OF   LIGHTNING         335 

' '  This  countryman  of  yours, ' '  he  said  to  Hawthorne,  ' '  is 
either  a  devil  or  an  angel.  There  is  nothing  he  does  not 
know. ' ' 

(4) 

Later  in  the  day,  at  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop,  the  little  sur 
geon,  very  muzzy,  was  bragging  of  Don  Antonio 's  generous 
fee. 

1  'Look  at  that!"  Parlett  cried.  "Six  doubloons,  solid 
gold,  good  as  guineas ;  worth  three  guineas  and  a  half  each 
of  the  six.  Twenty  pounds'  worth  of  gold;  one  hundred 
pesos,  one  hundred  piastres,  one  hundred  dollars!  All  for 
chasing  a  poor  little  jigger  out  of  a  girl's  eye. 

"And  what  does  old  Sour-Face  pay  me  for  curing  his 
horse-grenadiers  ?  his  quart eleros  ?  his  darling  hussars  ? 

"Two  rials  a  visit,  and  that's  a  shilling. 

"Here  I've  the  price  of  four  hundred  visits  to  the  bar 
racks,  all  for  tickling  a  pretty  lass's  eye  with  a  chicken 
feather." 

(5) 

Hawthorne's  restless  curiosity  prompted  him  to  pay  at 
least  one  visit  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Rio  Paraguay  and 
make  some  sort  of  acquaintance  with  the  edge  of  the  Gran 
Chaco.  Don  Vicente  was  horrified  at  the  suggestion. 

"The  Payaguas,"  he  said,  "are  fairly  sensible  for  sav 
ages,  and  exhibit  as  much  forethought  as  could  be  expected 
of  wild  men.  They  are  wary  and  never  cross  the  river 
when  they  suspect  danger.  Yet  scarcely  a  month  passes 
without  a  report  of  several  of  them  being  ambushed  and 
killed  by  the  Indians  of  the  Chaco. 

"The  Guaycarus  are  all  fierce  and  sanguinary  nomads, 
but  the  Abipones,  the  tribes  frequenting  the  portion  of  the 
Chaco  opposite  us,  are  the  most  ferocious  and  bloodthirsty 
of  all  of  them.  Be  warned  and  give  up  this  erratic  notion. " 

Carmelo  was  less  discouraging. 

"The  Payaguas  are  reckless  to  a  degree,  sometimes,  like 
all  savages, ' '  he  said ;  ' '  but  they  are  cautious  enough  when 
convoying  Europeans,  and  they  are  perfect  scouts.  I'll  go 
;with  you . 


336  EL  SUPREMO 

"But  we  need  not  let  father  know,  nor  any  one  else. 
"We'll  take  no  servants,  just  go  you  and  I  together.  We'll 
make  a  day  of  it.  It'll  be  rather  a  lark. 

1 '  The  Payaguas  have  no  canoes  big  enough  to  ferry  over 
two  horses  at  once.  We  don 't  want  to  make  two  trips,  the 
first  of  us  waiting  for  the  second.  It  would  take  more  time 
and  would  be  a  risk,  if  there  should  chance  to  be  any 
Abipones  anywhere  about.  So  we'll  need  two  of  the  big 
gest  Payagua  canoes,  one  for  you  and  the  other  for  me. 
The  horses  can  be  blindfolded  and  by  sitting  with  a  hand 
on  their  bridles  we  can  keep  them  steady.  The  Payaguas 
will  hold  their  tongues  forever  for  a  little  extra  pay.  Ex 
tra  and  all,  they  won't  charge  much  anyhow. " 

It  required  but  a  few  days  for  Carmelo  to  make  his  ar 
rangements.  Starting  soon  after  sunrise  of  a  perfect  Par 
aguayan  morning,  they  cantered  off  southward  past  the 
Franciscan  Monastery,  as  if  on  one  of  their  usual  rides. 
Doubling  back  after  a  short  half  mile,  they  swung  round 
an  abrupt  curve,  through  the  complication  of  cactus-hedged, 
orange-shaded  lanes,  passed  to  the  east  of  the  church  of 
San  Koque,  and  came  to  the  water's  edge  at  the  appointed 
spot,  the  foot  of  the  first  gully  eastward  from  the  church 
of  San  Bias. 

There  they  found  the  two  canoes,  each  with  eight  stal 
wart  savages,  every  man  with  a  nine-foot  paddle.  Haw 
thorne  was  much  edified  at  the  neat  and  simple  devices  by 
which  the  horses  were  induced  to  enter  the  canoes.  In  a 
very  short  time  he  was  at  his  horse 's  head,  in  the  place  he 
was  to  keep,  almost  at  once  they  were  skimming  the  sur 
face  of  the  river,  the  prows  of  the  canoes  pointed  well  up 
stream.  Before  they  seemed  fairly  under  way,  they  shot  in 
among  the  rushes  and  underwood  of  the  further  bank. 
On  the  Chaco  shore  the  Rio  Paraguay  was  fringed  by  a 
dense  belt  of  riverside  forest,  many  of  the  trees  acacias 
and  much  of  the  underbrush  equally  thorny.  Through  this 
they  had  some  ado  to  make  their  way,  even  with  the  cun 
ning  guidance  of  a  Payagua  completely  an  adept  at  fol 
lowing  the  paths  made  by  the  wild  cattle  in  coming  to 
drink. 

After  they  passed  this  belt  of  waterside  vegetation,  they 
came  out  on  the  rolling  hills  of  the  true  Chaco. 

There  they  spent  some  hours  galloping  about,  their  Pay* 


A   FLASH   OF   LIGHTNING         337 

agua  guides  running  tirelessly  by  the  horses.  They  saw 
little  except  the  recurrent  sameness  of  low  rolling  hills, 
clumps  of  algarroba  trees  along  their  drier  summits,  brakes 
of  impenetrable  cane  in  the  wetter  hollows,  and  every 
where,  as  Don  Vicente  had  said,  groves  of  palm-trees,  palm- 
trees  standing  wide  apart,  their  trunks  very  thick  and  rap 
idly  tapering,  their  plumy  tops  absurdly  inadequate-looking 
for  their  sturdy  stems;  and  besides  palm-trees,  square 
leagues  of  coarse  chala  grass  among  or  beyond  them  waving 
in  the  wind. 

Living  things  were  few.  They  saw  several  varieties  of 
snipe  and  plover  in  the  openings,  parrots  and  toucans  in 
the  trees,  and  encountered  three  armadillos,  one  of  which 
Carmelo  shot.  Once  Hawthorne  thought  he  caught  a 
glimpse  of  a  jaguar.  But  Carmelo  doubted  and  the  Pay- 
aguas  were  incredulous. 

The  day  was  extraordinarily  fair,  not  oppressively  hot, 
and  they  found  the  weather  agreeable.  Until  they  had  re 
turned  to  the  landward  edge  of  the  belt  of  riverside  forest, 
they  scarcely  noticed  a  cloud  in  the  sky. 

"When  they  came  out  at  the  waterside  and  found  the 
waiting  canoes,  not  only  Hawthorne,  but  Carmelo  also, 
was  amazed  at  the  alteration  in  the  sky. 

"This  is  something  quite  unusual,"  Carmelo  exclaimed. 
"We  are  going  to  have  a  violent  storm.  Generally  they 
only  follow  very  hot  and  very  still  days.  I  never  saw  such 
a  threatening  sky  develop  so  rapidly  after  a  cool,  breezy 
day." 

The  Payaguas  were  manifestly  not  a  little  disturbed. 

The  first  blast  of  the  storm  overtook  them  when  they 
were  about  midway  of  the  river.  It  did  not  come  upon 
them  with  a  continuous  hurricane  of  wind,  a  solid  wall  of 
rain,  drowning  the  air,  and  an  all-engulfing  darkness  blot 
ting  "jut  the  view  in  all  directions,  like  a  Buenos  Aires 
pam'jero;  small  puffs  roughened  the  surface  of  the  river, 
leaving  unruffled  spaces  between,  spurts  of  rain  pelted 
down  and  ceased  as  suddenly  as  they  began ;  the  gusts  grew 
successively  more  violent  and  longer,  the  rain  more  furious, 
the  intervals  between  the  gusts  shorter.  Then  each  squall 
buried  them  in  a  whirling  grey  blend  of  air,  rain  and  spray. 
At  the  edge  of  each  Hawthorne  could  see  far  across  rela 
tively  quiet  water  through  clear  air  to  the  next;  in  the 


338  EL   SUPREMO 

midst  of  each  he  could  scarcely  make  out  the  Payaguae, 
paddling  like  maniacs,  not  two  yards  from  him. 

As  the  storm  worsened  he  totally  lost  sight  of  Carmelo's 
canoe,  and  had  no  idea  of  the  position  of  his  own.  He  had 
a  vague  notion  that  they  had  been  swept  past  the  city,  but 
when  they  suddenly  came  to  shore  he  had  no  guess  of  the 
locality.  They  touched  the  bank  in  the  nick  of  time  be 
tween  two  squalls,  Hawthorne  and  his  horse  landed  as 
easily  as  if  the  weather  had  been  fair  and  the  air  calm; 
the  next  instant  the  canoe  and  Payaguas  were  swept  out  of 
view  into  the  turmoil  of  an  appalling  gust.  Pelted  and 
flailed  by  the  rain,  Hawthorne  headed  blindly  for  the  shel 
ter  of  the  trees  at  the  top  of  the  bank,  and  reached  them 
just  as  the  gust  passed.  Before  the  next  broke  over  him 
he  had  leisure  to  look  about  him  and  perceive  he  was  in  the 
grove  round  El  Zapo's  homestead.  Leading  his  horse,  he 
attempted  to  find  the  cottage. 

When  in  the  midst  of  the  wood  a  gust  of  such  fury  broke 
over  them  that  the  darkness  was  almost  complete  and  was 
made  to  seem  more  dense  by  the  flashes  of  lightning.  They 
and  the  thunder  so  terrified  the  horse  that  he  reared,  tried 
to  break  away  and  could  not  be  led.  Hawthorne  tethered 
him  to  a  tree  trunk  and  groped  his  way  forward  toward 
where  he  conjectured  the  garden-clearing  lay. 

Before  he  had  reached  it,  the  squall  had  passed,  and  as 
he  cleared  the  trees,  another  was  just  impending,  a  sullen 
canopy  of  whirling  slate-coloured  clouds,  covering  all  the 
firmament  except  a  clear  patch  of  sky  low  down  to  the 
south-east. 

Against  that  strip  of  intense  green  light  he  glimpsed  a 
tall  figure  running  towards  the  cottage  from  the  other  cor 
ner  of  the  garden-patch.  So  entirely  did  all  the  light  come 
from  that  long  narrowing  ribbon  of  clear  sky  that  ,he  saw 
the  man's  face  as  if  silhouetted  against  it,  a  sharp,  indi 
vidual  profile,  seen  only  for  an  instant  and  then  disap  pear- 
ing  behind  a  hedge  as  the  man  ran  on. 

Before  Hawthorne  reached  the  cottage,  the  storm  burst 
in  its  full  fury.  The  last  dozen  yards  he  struggled  as  if 
against  a  flood.  He  was  all  but  beaten  to  the  earth  and  »:he 
darkness  was  intense. 

Groping,  he  found  the  back  of  the  cottage. 

At  that  moment  came  a  flash  of  lightning. 


A   FLASH   OF  LIGHTNING        339 

He  saw  a  tall  man  not  a  yard  from  him;  saw  the  face 
plain. 

When  he  had  felt  his  way  round  the  cottage  and  reached 
the  portico,  he  staggered  under  it,  half  drowned  and  gasp 
ing  for  breath. 

El  Zapo,  phlegmatic  and  raucous,  made  him  welcome. 

Speech,  much  less  conversation,  was  impossible  in  that 
continuous  roar  of  rain,  mostly  itself  inaudible  because  of 
the  almost  incessant  rumble  of  thunder,  which  at  short  in 
tervals  was  overridden  by  rending  explosions  that  shook 
the  earth. 

It  was  a  full  hour  before  the  turmoil  of  the  storm  had 
slackened  enough  to  permit  of  anything  but  mere  existence. 
Then  they  had  mate  and  lit  cigars.  But  the  steady  down 
pour  of  rain  filled  up  the  windless  air  and  made  any 
thought  of  departure  impossible. 

El  Zapo  had  several  children,  all  boys.  The  youngest,  a 
merry,  precocious  urchin  about  eight  years  old,  the  fattest 
boy  in  Asuncion,  Hawthorne  had  noticed  on  his  rides  with 
Carmelo.  During  the  crashes  of  thunder  he  had  been  hid 
den  somewhere  in  the  cottage;  when  they  abated  he  ap 
peared,  at  first  hanging  back  bashfully,  then  revolving 
about  the  stranger,  irresistibly  drawn  to  him  by  curiosity. 

Hawthorne  had  just  the  right  way  with  children,  and 
soon  had  him  at  his  knee  and  talking. 

His  talk  was  all  about  marketing,  eatables  and  cooking. 
For  one  so  young,  his  knowledge  of  the  relative  desirability 
and  cost  of  provisions  was  amazing.  His  ambition  was  to 
grow  up  to  be  a  cook,  the  cook  of  a  rich  man  who  would 
not  have  to  consider  prices  at  all,  but  could  purchase  un 
limited  supplies  of  stand-bys  and  sweep  the  market  clean 
of  all  delicacies  and  rareties. 

' '  The  best  of  everything !  The  best  of  everything ! ' '  he 
kept  repeating,  apparently  in  his  mother's  voice. 

As  during  the  long  hour,  when  not  one  of  those  about  him 
stirred  any  more  than  he;  as  on  his  ride  homeward, 
throughout  which  he  abstractedly  watched  the  innumerable 
frogs,  large  green  frogs  and  small  brown  frogs,  jumping 
from  under  his  horse 's  feet  out  of  endless  mud-puddles ;  as 
during  his  distracted  efforts  to  be  courteous  and  natural  at 
supper;  so  after  he  lay  on  his  bed,  Hawthorne  ceaselessly 
pondered  and  brooded  over  the  shape  and  profile  he  had 


340  EL   SUPREMO 

seen  against  the  sky,  and  the  face  revealed  by  the  lightning 
flash. 

The  outline  and  gait  irresistibly  recalled  those  of  the 
figure  he  had  watched  fleeing  in  the  moonlight  round  the 
corner  of  the  Government  House. 

The  profile  had  exhibited  the  unmistakable  nose  of  the 
Caballero  lineage. 

The  face  as  he  had  seen  it  close  to  his,  tallied  accurately 
with  the  descriptions  detailed  to  him  by  Don  Bernardo 
Velasco,  by  Don  Vicente,  by  a  dozen  frequenters  of  Dr. 
Bargas'  wine-shop,  of  the  physiognomy  of  Don  Domingo 
Kodriguez. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

PLEAS  AND   ECLIPSES 

(i) 

THE  Mayorga  household  never  noticed  Hawthorne's 
agitation,  as  all  their  attention  was  concentrated  upon 
Carmelo.  His  canoe  had  been  swept  not  only  past  Payagua 
brook  and  Arroyo  Jaeh,  but  almost  to  the  mouth  of  Arroyo 
Salamanca;  he  had  landed  in  the  worst  of  the  storm,  had 
found  very  insufficient  shelter  in  a  clump  of  algarroba 
trees,  and  had  almost  collapsed  from  the  chill  and  shock. 

Hawthorne  was  concerned  for  Carmelo,  but  really  glad 
of  the  diversion.  He  was  by  heredity  and  training  inca 
pable  of  betraying  the  vilest  criminal,  no  matter  how  cer 
tain  his  guilt.  Contempt  for  informers  was  as  much  a  part 
of  his  nature  since  his  early  school  days  as  compassion  for 
the  unfortunate  and  aversion  to  arbitrary  authority  were 
innate  with  him  amid  the  traditions  that  had  nurtured  him. 
Even  had  he  been  sure  of  Francia's  kingly  rights  and  his 
cousin's  felony,  he  would  have  shrunk  from  putting  the 
most  despicable  traitor  in  the  hands  of  the  most  upright 
government. 

But  while  the  idea  never  tempted  him  for  an  instant,  ha 
was  tortured  by  it  incessantly. 

A  word  to  the  Dictator,  and  Don  Domingo  would  be  shot 
at  dawn.  No  one  would  ever  guess  how  the  reticent  doctor 


FLEAS   AND   ECLIPSES  341 

had  discovered  his  victim's  hiding-place.  Cecilia  would  be 
a  widow.  Self-interest  pointed  the  plain  course.  Francia's 
talk  of  the  safety  of  Paraguay,  of  the  happiness  of  the 
Guaranies,  of  the  risk  his  people  ran  with  every  danger 
that  threatened  their  Dictator,  the  horrors  of  war  in  Gran 
ada  and  the  Banda  Oriental  ran  in  his  head  and  whispered 
that  the  obvious  line  of  conduct  was  also  for  the  cause  of 
humanity  at  large. 

Naturally  representing  whatever  he  craved  as  vile  and 
whatever  cost  the  most  pain  as  the  honourable  path,  his 
New  England  conscience  triumphed,  and  he  woke  in  a  fine 
glow  of  self-effacement  and  altruistic  resolve. 

He  was  early  in  the  saddle  and  cantered  off  alone;  a 
most  natural  procedure,  as  the  morning  was  lovely,  he  in 
fine  health  and  spirits,  and  Carmelo  still  abed.  He  rode  off 
with  a  studious  appearance  of  haphazard  rambling  and, 
after  some  wide  circuits,  dismounted  by  El  Zapo's  docks. 
He  tethered  his  horse,  picked  his  way  across  the  timbers  of 
the  lock  and  found  himself  face  to  face  with  El  Zapo  him 
self. 

"Sefior  Don  Francisco, "  Hawthorne  began,  with  labo 
rious  courtesy,  "I  wish  to  speak  a  word  with  you." 

* ' Sp-sp-speak  it,"  the  corpulent  giant  enunciated,  a  sort 
of  howl  between  the  preliminary  stutter  and  terminal  bel 
low. 

"We  should  talk,  if  it  please  you,  Seiior  Don  Francisco," 
Hawthorne  pursued,  "where  we  cannot  be  overheard." 

' '  N-n-no  one  can  hear  you, ' '  El  Zapo  gurgled  and  bawled. 
"I  can't  half  hear  you  myself.  I  don't  care  who  hears 
me." 

Hawthorne  glanced  about,  saw  no  one  close  by,  for  the 
nearest  shipwright  was  about  forty  yards  away,  and  spoke, 
sinking  his  voice : 

"You  have  a  guest,  Seiior  Don  Francisco." 

' '  S-s-since  you  scrambled  across  that  lock,  I  have,  yes ! ' ' 
El  Zapo  roared. 

"I  mean,"  Hawthorne  said,  "you  had  a  guest  yesterday 
afternoon. ' ' 

"T-t-to  be  sure  I  had,"  El  Zapo  rumbled.  "You  were 
here  two  hours. ' ' 

"I  mean,"  Hawthorne  insisted,  "you  had  another  guest 
besides  me." 


342  EL   SUPREMO 

El  Zapo's  goggling  eyes  were  fixed  on  Hawthorne's. 

"I  k-k-kept  scratching  the  devil  of  a  flea,"  he  ruminated, 
"a  very  Satan,  as  uncatehable  as  Beelzebub.  But  you'd 
hardly  come  back  here  to  tell  me  that. ' ' 

"You  know  precisely  whom  I  mean,"  Hawthorne  said, 
nettled.  "He  was  in  the  grove  when  the  storm  came  up, 
ran  out  at  the  west  corner  of  the  garden  just  when  I  came 
out  at  the  east  corner.  I  saw  him  plain  against  the  sky.  He 
did  not  then  see  me,  and  we  came  face  to  face  at  the  back 
of  your  house.  I  saw  him  as  plainly  as  I  see  you  now. ' ' 

"B-b-being  a  stranger  in  Asuncion,"  he  sputtered,  "you 
aren't  used  to  our  thunder-storms.  They  often  scare  for 
eigners  that  way,  and  sometimes  natives,  and  make  them 
see  things. ' ' 

"There  was  a  flash  of  lightning  just  as  we  almost  ran 
into  each  other,"  Hawthorne  spoke  measuredly.  "I  saw 
his  nose  and  the  scar  on  his  forehead.  I  recognised  him." 

"M-m-my  boy!"  El  Zapo  grunted,  "I  know  just  what  is 
the  matter  with  you :  you  got  soaked  in  the  downpour  and 
caught  a  chill.  Then  you  drank  too  much,  trying  to  get 
rid  of  the  ague.  Never  drink  too  much,  young  man !  Take 
a  pattern  from  me,  and  be  moderate.  I  'm  always  cold  sober 
in  the  morning. J ' 

"I  recognised  him,  I  tell  you!"  Hawthorne  persisted. 
'  *  It  was  Don  Domingo  Rodriguez ! ' ' 

"D-d-did  you  g-g-go  t-t-tell  that  to  Fr-Fr-Francia  ? "  El 
Zapo  stuttered. 

"I  have  told  no  one!"  Hawthorne  retorted.  "I  shall 
tell  no  one !  I  am  trying  to  warn  you.  If  I  saw  him,  some 
one  else  might  see  him,  any  one  else  might  see  him.  He  is 
not  safe  where  he  is  here ! ' ' 

"Wh-wh-wh-what  your  game  is,  I  can't  understand,"  El 
Zapo  gurgled.  "  But  you  seem  to  mean  well.  Now,  my  ad 
vice  to  you  is  to  ride  home  and  get  sober.  When  you  are 
sober,  you  're  no  fool,  and  you  '11  realise  I  'm  no  fool.  You  '11 
realise  that  if  you  had  seen  the  man  you  think  you  saw  he  'd 
have  told  me  the  first  chance  and  he'd  have  spent  every 
minute  of  his  time  from  then  to  now  getting  as  far  from 
here  as  he  could.  You'll  also  realise  that  I  appreciate  you? 
good  intentions.  But  you'll  realise  most  of  all  that  you 
didn  't  need  to  come  here  to-day ;  first,  because  I  'm  no  fool ; 
second,  because  a  man  in  hiding  is  not  slow  to  take  alarm, 


FLEAS   AND    ECLIPSES  343 

and  third,  because  I  never  had  any  guest,  as  you  call  it, 
except  you  and  that  devilish  fl-fl-flea ! " 

From  the  shipyard  Hawthorne  went  at  once  to  the  prison, 
out  he  rode  at  a  foot  pace,  checking  his  horse  whenever  it 
went  faster,  for  he  had  need  to  think.  As  it  was,  he  had 
too  little  time,  and  stood  at  the  door  of  Cecilia's  hut  as 
completely  muddled  in  mind  as  during  his  vigils  of  the 
night  before. 

His  demeanour  visibly  startled  Cecilia,  who  gazed  at  him 
a  long  moment  with  almost  an  expression  of  interest,  the 
first  approximation  to  personal  regard  he  had  ever  seen  on 
her  face.  It  was  transient,  and  her  greeting  as  «cold  and 
formal  as  usual. 

Hawthorne  made  an  intelligible  but  awkward  gesture  to 
wards  the  old  negress. 

' '  I  must  speak  to  you  alone, ' '  he  said.    ' '  Send  her  away. ' ' 

Many  a  time  previously  he  had  said  almost  the  same 
words,  and  always  Cecilia  had  ignored  them  impassively. 
Now  the  "must"  instead  of  "wish  to"  struck  tellingly  on 
her  ears  and  still  more  was  his  tone  significant.  In  spite  of 
herself,  she  complied.  The  negress  heaved  herself  to  her 
feet  and  waddled  across  the  yard  to  the  loom-shed. 

' '  I  have  news  that  may  startle  you, ' '  Hawthorne  began. 

"To  be  startled,"  spoke  Cecilia,  "would  be  a  welcome 
diversion  in  this  monotony.  But  I  doubt  if  any  news  you 
could  announce  would  startle  me.  Try!" 

1 '  I  have  seen  your  husband ! ' '  Hawthorne  blurted  out. 

A  throng  of  jostling  emotions  sent  a  blend  of  conflicting 
expressions  across  Cecilia's  face.  But  she  did  not  look 
gtartled,  nor  at  all  as  Hawthorne  conjectured  she  might; 
nor  was  her  aspect  in  the  least  like  any  one  of  the  dozen 
possibilities  his  prevision  had  imagined. 

"Indeed,"  she  said,  "you  are  then  like  the  Basques  or 
the  Scotch,  and  gifted  with  preternatural  vision!  High 
landers  of  many  countries  can  see  what  is  not  before  their 
eyes,  or  think  they  can,  so  that  they  sometimes  cheat  them 
selves  into  believing  that  they  see  what  does  not  exist  any 
where  on  earth.  Sometimes  they  can  beguile  others  with 
their  visions.  Perhaps  you  are  as  they.  Maybe  I  am  also. 
Let  me  try !  I  can  see  the  saintly  aureole  about  your  head 
and  the  silver  plumage  of  your  wings,  as  about  a  pictured 
angel  of  God!!' 


344  EL   SUPREMO 

Ignoring  her  sneering  banter,  Hawthorne  spoke  reso 
lutely  and  patiently. 

"I  am  perfectly  serious.  I  am  not  speaking  of  visions. 
As  I  see  you  now  I  saw  Don  Domingo  Rodriguez." 

"Where?"  Cecilia  queried. 

Hawthorne  glanced  behind  him. 

' '  That  is  right ! ' '  she  whispered  incisively.  ' '  Don 't  say. 
It  might  be  overheard." 

Her  voice  was  music  to  Hawthorne.  For  the  first  time 
she  was  treating  him  as  a  friend,  a  confederate!  By  im 
plication  she  commended  his  revelation  as  she  had  com 
mended  his  not  replying.  For  the  first  time  she  behaved  as 
if  they  had  common  interests. 

Then  he  was  yet  more  thrilled.  Cecilia  spoke  in  French, 
French  with  a  very  un-French  accent,  halting  French ;  but 
the  change  of  language  still  more  implied  mutual  trust. 

' '  It  must  have  been  near  Asuncion. ' ' 

1 '  Very  near  by, ' '  Hawthorne  answered  in  French  rather 
better  than  Cecilia's. 

"I  had  hoped,"  she  mused  aloud,  "that  they  were  long 
ago  far  away.  Where  did  you  see  him  ? ' ' 

Her  manner  was  that  of  a  kind-hearted  lady  enquiring 
about  an  unfortunate  in  whom  she  had  no  interest  what 
ever.  Her  unemotional  placidity  amazed  Hawthorne. 

"I  saw  him,"  he  answered,  "near  El  Zapo's  cottage." 

' '  El  Zapo, ' '  she  ruminated.  '  *  Yes,  I  have  heard  of  him. 
I  think  I  understand.  They  told  me  about  him.  But  it 
seems  very  unfortunate  for  them,  or  very  foolish  of 
them." 

"Them!"  Hawthorne  exclaimed.  "They!  Who  are 
'they'?" 

Instantly  Cecilia  was  completely  on  her  guard.  The 
subtle  atmosphere  of  fellowship  which  had  momentarily 
enveloped  them  dissolved  instantaneously.  Cecilia  ignored 
the  question,  and  spoke  formally,  in  Spanish : 

1 '  I  must  thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind  intentions. ' ' 

Nor  did  she  relax  at  all  during  the  remainder  of  their 
interview. 

But  next  morning,  when  Hawthorne  returned  to  the 
prison,  she  did  not,  as  always  before,  thank  him  perfunc 
torily  for  the  flowers  he  brought,  but  beamed  at  him  with  a 
smile  full  of  graclousness,  put  one  in  her  hair,  another  in 


FLEAS   AND    ECLIPSES  345 

the  lace  at  the  breast  of  her  tupoi  and  thrust  the  rest  into- 
her  helt. 


(2) 

From  the  first  moment  he  set  eyes  on  her,  Hawthorne 
had  seen  Dona  Juana  have  her  way  in  all  things  except  one 
only.  She  laid  claim  to  Hawthorne  as  an  adopted  grand 
son  or  godson,  or  both,  and  did  her  best  to  have  him  take 
up  his  abode  at  Itapua  with  her  and  Beltran.  In  this  she 
failed.  Mayorga  did  not  seem  a  forceful  person,  but  he 
blandly  maintained  his  rights  as  the  man  to  whom  almost 
all  Hawthorne 's  letters  of  introduction  were  addressed,  and 
as  his  first  host.  He  refuted  or  parried  all  the  old  lady's 
arguments,  withstood  her  cajoleries,  and  kept  Hawthorne 
as  his  guest. 

But  Hawthorne  spent  no  small  fraction  of  his  time  at 
Itapua,  and  there  one  evening,  returning  from  a  ride  to 
gether,  Beltran  said: 

' '  I  want  you  to  go  into  the  city  with  me  to-morrow  morn 
ing." 

"I  am  going  in,  anyhow, "  Hawthorne  replied. 

"Yes,  I  know,"  said  Beltran.  ''But  I  mean  I  want  you 
to  accompany  me  to  Don  Antonio's." 

"Why?"  Hawthorne  asked. 

"You  see,"  Beltran  explained,  reining  his  horse  to  a 
walk,  "you  are  not  only  the  best  friend  I  have,  but  almost 
the  only  friend  I  have.  Every  one  of  the  intimates  I  left 
behind  when  I  sailed  for  Spain  has  disappeared.  Some  are 
dead,  some  have  gone  to  Guatemala  or  Peru  or  Spain  and 
have  not  returned.  My  chums,  my  cronies,  my  intimates, 
have  all  vanished.  Not  only  my  friends,  but  nearly  ail  my 
mere  familiars.  I  never  was  intimate  with  Estanislao;  he 
is  much  older  than  I,  and  the  inequality  in  our  ancestry 
was  emphasised  by  the  contrast  between  father's  wealth 
and  his  very  moderate  means.  The  difference  in  our  ages 
appears  greater  now  than  it  did  ten  years  ago.  It  ought  to 
seem  less,  but  I  feel  very  young,  while  he  is  middle-aged 
and  grave.  Yet,  of  the  acquaintances  I  left  behind  at  my 
departure,  I  find  on  my  return  Estanislao  is  by  far  the 
nearest,  or  should  I  say  the  least  distant?  He  seems  very; 


346  EL   SUPREMO 

distant.  I  could  not  think  of  calling  on  Estanislao  to  act 
as  my  best  friend.  Having  no  father,  uncles,  or  brothers 
left,  I  must  have  my  best  friend  with  me  when  I  speak  to 
Don  Antonio.  Etiquette  demands  it.  I  am  told  that  in  my 
absence  the  younger  set  here  are  taking  up  the  Porteno 
fashion  and  sending  a  mutual  friend  instead  of  going  in 
person.  But,  as  for  me,  even  if  I  have  seen  the  world  and 
become  very  new-fashioned  in  other  respects,  I  remain  old- 
fashioned  in  some  things.  In  this  particular,  I  shall  not 
adopt  the  imported  mode,  but  shall  stick  to  our  ancient 
usage  here,  according  to  which  a  suitor  must  present  his 
request  in  person,  but  must  be  accompanied  by  his  best 
friend." 

Suddenly  Hawthorne  realised  what  Beltran  meant  to  say 
to  Don  Antonio.  He  reflected  swiftly.  Certainly  he  was  a 
guest  at  Don  Vicente's  and  a  good  friend  to  Desiderio. 
Yet  his  friendship  with  Beltran  long  antedated  his  ac 
quaintanceship  with  the  Mayorgas.  Also,  Desiderio  had  a 
father  and  brothers  and  uncles.  At  sea  as  he  was  about 
Spanish  customs  and  in  the  dark  as  to  their  delicate  punc 
tilios,  he  thought  he  could  not  be  far  wrong. 

"Ill  go  with  you,"  he  agreed. 

And  go  he  did,  both  in  their  best  attire,  on  splendid, 
perfectly  saddled  horses,  their  servants  neat  and  clean  on 
cream-coloured  mules. 

Don  Antonio,  at  sight  of  them,  put  on  his  waistcoat,  ra 
pier  and  coat.  He  was  very  urbane,  but  very  formal.  Snuff 
was  exchanged.  Mate  was  brought,  with  silver  cups  for  all 
instead  of  gourds  and  a  silver  b&m^illa  apiece.  His  choic 
est  cigars  followed. 

When  the  cigars  were  drawing  well,  the  courtly  old  Don 
let  the  conversation  flag,  his  eyes  on  Beltran 's  face.  Bel 
tran  made  his  formal  request  for  Angelica's  hand  in  the 
best  style  of  Castilian  ceremonial.  Don  Antonio  listened 
with  equal  suavity  and  replied  with  all  the  usual  compli 
ments;  with  more  than  customary  compliments.  It  was 
only  after  much  circumlocution  that  he  came  to  the  point. 

"I  acknowledge,"  he  said,  "that  there  was  an  agreement 
between  your  lamented  father  and  myself  looking  towards 
uniting  the  two  families  by  mating  his  youngest  son  to  my 
eldest  daughter.  The  main  article  in  our  contract  was  that 
and  Angelica  were  to  marry.  I  consider  myself  as 


FLEAS   AND   ECLIPSES  347 

much  bound  by  that  agreement  as  your  father  would  were 
he  alive.  But  its  chief  provision  was  not  a  solitary  and 
unqualified  pledge.  As  there  was  not  only  never  any  for 
mal  contract  drawn  and  witnessed  and  exchanged  in  dupli 
cate,  but  not  even  any  rough  memorandum,  in  fact  at  no 
time  a  single  scrap  of  writing  embodying  our  mutual  in 
tentions,  I  am  the  sole  repository  of  the  stipulations,  as  I 
alone  of  living  men  ever  heard  them.  The  main  clause  was 
hedged  about  with  many  conditions,  which  your  good  father 
would  be  the  first  to  avow  were  he  in  the  flesh. 

"The  chief  of  the  subsidiary  provisions  was  the  explicit 
understanding  that  either  of  us  was  free  to  cancel  the 
agreement  if  alterations  in  the  circumstances  of  either  fam 
ily  made  it  less  likely  that  the  marriage  would  turn  out 
prosperously  and  happily  for  both  of  you. 

"I  admit  that  the  changes  wrought  in  each  family  by 
deaths  and  births  rather  strengthen  than  weaken  the  valid 
ity  of  your  pretensions.  No  property  you  were  likely  to 
inherit  as  the  fifth  son  of  a  father  even  so  wealthy  as  yours 
was,  bears  any  colourable  comparison  to  the  possessions 
that  you  have  fallen  heir  to  and  are  yet  to  fall  heir  to,  as 
sole  representative  of  the  Mendietas,  Isquibels  and  Jarays ; 
and  while  I  am  far  wealthier  than  I  was,  richer  in  fact 
than  I  ever  hoped  to  be,  the  utmost  dowry  I  can  bestow 
with  Angelica  will  not  be  much  larger,  now  that  I  have 
eleven  children,  than  it  seemed  likely  to  be  when  I  was  far 
poorer  and  had  only  three.  Therefore,  your  pressing  your 
suit  so  promptly  upon  your  return  is  not  only  a  tribute  to 
Angelica,  in  that  it  shows  you  still  admire  her  at  her  age 
after  ten  years  of  separation,  but  a  compliment  to  our  fam 
ily  in  general,  for  you  are,  in  point  of  position  and  income, 
the  most  desirable  bridegroom  in  Paraguay. 

"Yet  not  in  all  respects. 

' *  I  need  not  remind  you  of  the  tragic  misfortunes  of 
your  family  and  its  connections  during  the  brutal  severi 
ties  of  Don  Lazaro  Eibera  de  Espinosa  's  governorship ;  how 
that  harsh  Intendente  began  with  suspicions  of  the  Jarays, 
Isquibels  and  Mendietas;  went  on  to  savage  persecutions 
and  ended  by  a  sort  of  exacerbated  hostility.  I  need  not 
recall  to  you  the  long  list  of  executions  among  your  unfor 
tunate  kinsfolk  and  their  harrowing  circumstances.  Youth 
ful  gallants  just  betrothed  were  torn  from  their  sweet- 


348  EL   SUPREMO 

hearts,  expectant  bridegrooms  from  their  affianced  brides, 
newly  married  husbands  from  their  spouses ;  young  couples, 
full  of  hope  and  affection,  were  separated  suddenly  and 
forever;  devoted  consorts,  parents  of  a  growing  family, 
were  unexpectedly  sundered. 

' '  I  need  not  recite  to  you  the  names  of  the  victims.  There 
cannot  but  crowd  upon  your  memory  the  multitude  of  cases 
where  men  of  unblemished  reputation  and  lofty  character 
were  arrested  without  colour  of  law,  and  summarily  shot 
without  accusation  or  defense. 

' '  You  will  remember  how  many  doting  fathers  betrothed 
their  dearest  daughters  with  every  prospect  of  life-long 
felicity  and  saw  their  lives  ruined,  sometimes  even  their 
intellects  destroyed,  by  undeserved  bereavements. 

"The  reservations  between  myself  and  your  father  had 
their  origin  in  my  misgivings  on  precisely  this  point.  With 
the  death  of  Don  Lazaro  and  the  appointment  of  Don  Ber 
nardo,  my  hesitancy  vanished.  Your  father  was  then  al 
ready  dead,  and  your  grandmother  decided  to  send  her  fa 
vourite  grandson  to  see  the  world.  I  made  no  demur.  You 
have  been  absent  longer  than  I  could  have  foreseen.  Tules 
was  always  fond  of  you,  and  has  never  abated  her  affec 
tion.  Angelica  is  bound  by  the  verbal  agreement,  of  course. 
But  I  am  free  to  cancel  it  if  I  see  fit.  I  am  also  free  to 
require  a  period  of  probation  before  I  ratify  it  and  make 
the  ratification  public.  That  period  of  probation  I  think  it 
best  to  exact. 

"I  shall  not  be  explicit.  But  what  I  have  said  of  Es- 
pinosa's  treatment  of  your  kinsmen  has  an  obvious  appli 
cation  to  present  conditions,  and  what  I  have  told  you  of 
the  minor  stipulations  of  my  pact  with  your  father  is 
manifestly  applicable.  Circumstances  have  altered  for 
both  families,  for  both  possible  parties  to  a  conceivable 
alliance.  In  particular,  I  cannot  guess  how  you  are  going 
to  stand  with  the  existing  government.  You  are  able,  in 
gratiating  and  experienced.  This  may  appeal  to  the  pow 
ers  in  control,  or  it  may  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  suspi 
cion,  espionage,  for  arbitrary  arrest  and  summary  execu 
tion.  Your  death  would  be  a  grief  to  Angelica,  even  now. 
She  likes  and  admires  you.  But  while  you  and  she  are  not 
formally  pledged,  it  would  not  be  an  irretrievable  misfor 
tune.  Am  I  to  risk  her  desolation,  her  lifelong  woe  ? 


FLEAS   AND    ECLIPSES  349 

"You  cannot  ask  it. 

"Let  me  feel  sure  that  you  are  in  favour  at  headquarters 
and  your  second  application  will  meet  with  no  rebuff  or 
delay. " 

Beltran  stood  up,  bowed,  and  made  his  farewells  at  once. 


(3) 

Most  of  his  evenings  Hawthorne  spent  with  Francia. 
When  he  returned  from  Itapua  he  often  learned  that  a 
messenger  from  the  Dictator  had  come  to  seek  him,  and 
few  days  passed  in  Asuncion  without  a  message  requesting 
his  presence  at  the  Palacio. 

"You  cannot  imagine,"  Francia  said,  "what  a  relaxa 
tion  it  is  to  me  to  associate  with  some  one  I  can  meet  upon 
a  footing  of  intellectual  and  social  equality. 

"I  dare  not  permit  any  Paraguayan,  be  he  Guarani, 
Creole,  or  old  Spaniard  even,  to  approach  me  except  ob 
sequiously.  I  am  coerced  by  the  traditions  of  the  Vice 
roys,  Intendentes  and  Governors.  They  remained  seated 
and  covered  when  giving  audiences,  while  any  visitors  ad 
mitted  stood  hat  in  hand.  I  have  felt  it  imperative  that  I 
exact  for  myself  as  Dictator  as  much  deference  as  was  ac 
corded  the  mere  representative  of  a  distant  king,  but  I  have 
found  it  very  difficult  to  extort,  as  you  saw  in  the  case  of 
my  godmother. " 

"Precisely  the  same  difficulty,"  Hawthorne  said,  "has 
been  encountered  by  General  Alvear  in  Buenos  Aires ;  and 
I  was  told  by  his  predecessors." 

"Even  Liniers,  according  to  the  reports  that  reached 
us,"  Francia  corroborated  him,  "found  it  necessary  to  re 
main  standing  himself  to  preclude  his  visitors  from  taking 
seats  for  themselves,  even  unasked,  so  free  and  easy  did 
manners  become  from  the  first  slackening  of  royal  author 
ity.  His  successors  have  had  to  resort  to  similar  shifts. 

"But  whereas  those  transient  chiefs  insisted  upon  the 
punctilio  out  of  mere  vanity  or  from  an  inflated  sense  of 
the  importance  of  their  office  and  their  newly-independent 
city,  I,  who  would  most  willingly  sit  and  chat  with  every 
comer,  am  compelled  to  be  haughty,  distant  and  stern.  My 
Guaranies  are  strange  children.  Any  one  of  them  would 


350  EL   SUPREMO 

creep  to  my  window  in  the  dark  not  merely  with  the  trust 
fulness  of  a  devotee  towards  a  confessor,  but  with  a  child 's 
confidence  in  its  parent.  They  pour  out  their  troubles  to 
me  as  instinctively  as  dreamers  talking  in  their  sleep.  Yet 
not  one  of  them  ever  ventures  to  the  Palacio  in  my  morning 
audience  hour,  so  vividly  do  they  stand  in  awe  of  me.  The 
knowledge  that  I  will  receive  and  attend  to  the  meanest 
supplicant  coming  in  the  dark  never  seems  to  lessen  their 
veneration ;  each  appears  to  think  it  a  special  favour  never 
accorded  before  and  never  to  be  repeated.  But  did  I 
unbend  ever  so  little  in  my  audience  hour,  their  esteem  for 
me  and  their  fealty  towards  me  would  vanish  like  a  puff  of 
smoke.  I  could  connive  at  Madrina  Juana  seating  herself 
while  I  stood,  for  her  preternatural  youthfulness  at  her 
advanced  age  long  ago  inspired  them  with  a  superstitious 
regard  for  her.  I  could  safely  ask  Don  Beltran  to  be 
seated ;  for,  as  her  grandson,  he  is  exalted  in  their  esteem 
and  shares  some  degree  in  the  almost  sanctity  that  haloes 
her  about  in  their  imagination.  I  can  accord  the  privilege 
of  conversing  with  me  as  you  do  to  any  foreigner,  for  the 
mass  of  Paraguayans  look  upon  all  foreigners  except  Span 
iards  with,  as  it  were,  a  stupefaction  of  wonder. 

"But  if  I  were  to  relax  my  austere  demeanour  to  any 
Guarani,  to  any  Creole,  even  the  richest,  to  any  Spaniard, 
even  to  the  Bishop  himself,  the  report  would  spread  from 
San  Ignacio  to  Corpus,  from  Curapaiti  to  Forquilha  and 
Voquita ;  the  rumour  would  run  that  I  am  no  such  Supremo 
as  they  have  thought,  but  a  mere  man  like  any  other  man. 
Their  subserviency  would  evaporate,  my  hold  on  them  dis 
solve  and  my  power  be  no  more. 

"The  mere  instinct  of  self-preservation  forces  me  to  be 
magisterial  and  imperious  at  all  times.  To  curb  the  famil 
iarity  of  our  unsophisticated  Creoles  and  the  presumption 
of  our  overweening  old  Spaniards  I  have  to  appear  even 
harsh  and  arrogant. 

"And  even  if  the  exigencies  of  my  position  did  not  con 
strain  me,  were  I  free  to  indulge  my  tendencies  to  sociabil 
ity,  Paraguay  contains  not  one  single  human  being  capable 
of  affording  me  stimulating  conversation.  Don  Eustaquio 
is  more  than  my  match  in  matters  of  mere  law,  but  his 
mind  is  a  blank  on  all  other  subjects;  Don  Hermengildo  is 
my  rival  in  all  departments  of  knowledge,  but  the  adaman- 


FLEAS   AND    ECLIPSES  351 

tine  barrier  of  his  narrow  theological  bigotry  clamps  him 
in  on  all  sides  and  makes  him  my  enemy. 

"I  yearn  for  conviviality,  I  famish  for  human  inter 
course.  It  is  eight  years  since  Bishop  Nicolas  Vide! a  del 
Pino  died.  He  was  my  mental  compeer  in  all  respects  and 
surpassed  me  in  many  ways,  but  he  lived  only  two  years 
after  coming  to  Asuncion,  so  that  the  keen  relish  I  felt  for 
his  company  left  me  more  lonely  by  contrast. 

"Since  his  death  I  have  tasted  the  joys  of  associating 
with  one  nearly  on  a  level  with  myself  only  in  the  society  of 
foreigners.  Four  Englishmen  have  reached  Asuncion ;  Don 
Juan  Robertson  sojourned  here  for  three  considerable  peri 
ods  as  an  importer  and  merchant;  and  his  brother  for  two 
shorter  periods.  They  were  young  men  of  fair  education, 
wide  experience  and  open  minds.  A  Don  Enrique  Battam 
paid  one  short  visit  to  Asuncion.  From  him  I  purchased 
my  telescope,  theodolite,  air  pump,  electrical  machine  and 
my  two  large  globes,  all  displacing  far  inferior  instruments 
I  had  previously  possessed.  He  was  immeasurably  my 
superior  in  mathematics,  but  amazingly  ignorant  and  preju 
diced  in  all  other  departments  of  knowledge.  Don  Tomas 
Parlett  gave  me  much  pleasure  during  his  brief  interval  of 
sobriety  on  his  first  arrival  here.  But  he  is  besotted  and 
his  intellect  thereby  clouded.  You  are  the  only  companion 
I  have  had  or  have  who  can  meet  me  on  a  footing  of  equal 
ity  in  languages,  mathematics,  general  information,  pliabil 
ity  of  mind  and  plain  common  sense. ' ' 

Hawthorne  had  learned  early  in  his  acquaintance  with 
Francia  never  to  interrupt  his  tirades,  particularly  when 
he  was  talking  about  himself.  "When  Francia  came  to  the 
natural  conclusion  of  this  harangue  and  signified  as  much 
by  throwing  away  his  extinguished  cigar  and  lighting  a 
fresh  one  Hawthorne  expressed  his  gratification  at  the  Dic 
tator's  compliments. 

'  *  Not  an  approach  to  flattery,  I  assure  you, ' '  Francia  de 
clared.  "You  are  a  mental  tonic,  as  I  have  told  you  again 
and  again. 

"Which  reminds  me  that  I  have  waited  in  vain  for  you 
to  mention  eclipses.  Have  you  gone  over  my  calculations?'' 

"I  handed  them  back  to  you/'  Hawthorne  said.  "I  de 
clined  to  take  them." 

* ' Declined  to  take  them ! ' '  Francia  cried.    "It  is  my  dis- 


352  EL   SUPREMO 

tinct  recollection  that  you  promised  to  plough  through  my 
computations  and  check  up  every  operation  for  possible 
errors." 

' '  That  was  your  proposition  to  me, ' '  Hawthorne  replied. 
"I  proposed  that  I  merely  take  the  data  for  each  eclipse 
and  make  my  calculations  without  seeing  yours  at  all  and 
that  we  then  compare  the  two  sets." 

"I  remember  now,"  Francia  admitted.  "And  how  did 
you  come  out?" 

' '  According  to  my  results, ' '  Hawthorne  said, ' '  the  eclipse 
of  August  Oth,  1823,  will  not  be  visible  at  Asuncion  at  all. 
I  am  in  doubt  as  to  the  eclipses  of  October  29th,  1818,  and 
August  27th,  1821.  The  edge  of  the  track  of  each,  as  I  plot 
it,  just  brushes  Asuncion.  If  visible  at  all  here  they  will 
be  barely  discernible  as  mere  dents  in  the  rim  of  the  disk. 
I  am  not  sure  about  the  eclipses  of  June  16th,  1825,  and 
October  29th,  1837,  but  I  think  they  ought  to  show  here 
as  large  notches  or  scallops  out  of  the  sun's  face,  like  a 
greedy  boy's  first  bite  out  of  a  cake. 

"I  am  certain  the  eclipse  of  May  27th,  1835,  will  appear 
at  Asuncion  as  an  impressive  partial  eclipse,  with  more  than 
half  the  sun  covered  and  a  notable  diminution  in  bright 
ness." 

"Yes,"  Francia  interrupted.  "All  that  is  very  gratify 
ing.  I  remember  my  results  well  enough  to  make  out  that 
you  agree  closely  with  mine.  But  how  about  the  eclipse  of 
1839?" 

'  *  To  paraphrase  your  own  words, ' '  Hawthorne  said.  l '  If 
you  survive  until  March  15th  of  that  year  you  will  behold 
a  total  eclipse  of  a  full  minute's  duration." 

"The  Ides  of  March!  The  Ides  of  March!"  Francia 
repeated  gleefully,  taking  an  enormous  pinch  of  snuff.  ' '  A 
lucky  day,  perhaps,  for  at  least  one  disciple  of  the  great 
Julius.  I  may  very  well  hope  to  live  twenty-three  years 
yet  or  even  forty,  if  the  climate  of  Paraguay  agrees  with 
me  as  well  as  with  my  godmother.  I  may  revel  in  watching 
that  total  eclipse  in  1839.  But  no  longevity  to  which  any 
human  being  ever  attained,  except  in  the  absurd  legends  of 
the  patriarchs  in  Genesis,  could  carry  me  to  any  later 
eclipse  which  might  show  total  at  Asuncion.  And  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun  I  conceive  to  be  the  most  stupendous 
pageant  upon  which  human  eyes  can  gaze,  far  surpassing  in 


FLEAS   AND    ECLIPSES  353 

emotional  power  every  other  spectacle  or  phenomenon,  more 
magnificent,  more  portentous,  more  majestic. 

*  *  And  you  confirm  my  forecast  that  I  may  behold  one ! 

"Did  you  bring  your  papers  with  you?" 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  answered,  "I  have  them  in  my 
pocket. ' ' 

Francia  sighed.  ' '  This  breeze, ' '  he  said,  '  *  is  very  agree 
able,  but  it  will  not  allow  us  candles  out  here.  The  night 
is  really  too  oppressive  to  remain  long  indoors,  especially 
with  tapers  burning.  But  let  us  go  for  a  moment  into  my 
study  and  compare  our  computations." 

A  cursory  comparison  put  him  in  a  state  of  high  glee. 
He  rubbed  his  hands  and  kept  snuffing  prodigiously. 

' '  Our  greatest  discrepancy, ' '  he  said,  * '  is  not  a  full  league 
in  the  line  of  the  middle  of  the  track  of  any  shadow;  not 
two  seconds  as  to  duration.  And  those  are  on  the  eclipse 
of  1823,  which  does  not  matter  at  all.  As  to  the  great  event 
on  March  15th,  1839,  we  agree  to  the  incredible  exactitude 
of  one-twelfth  of  a  league  as  to  axis  and  one-tenth  of  a 
second  as  to  duration.  I  shall  be  a  proud  and  happy  man 
if  I  live  to  see  that  day!  I  shall  feel  I  have  not  lived  in 
vain.  I  shall  die  in  peace." 

He  took  more  snuff,  by  large  pinches,  in  a  transport  of 
ecstasy. 

Hawthorne  was  mute. 

"Let  us  get  a  breath  of  air,"  Francia  suggested.  "I 
am  glowing  with  excitement." 

In  the  garden  he  changed  the  subject. 

1 1  There  is  another  matter  upon  which  I  have  been  waiting 
for  you  to  speak.  You  have  not  told  me  what  you  thought 
of  my  troops." 

They  were  just  by  the  table  as  Francia  spoke. 

Hawthorne  took  up  a  fresh  cigar,  lit  it  at  the  guttering 
candle,  and,  on  Francia  taking  his  seat,  lowered  himself 
slowly  into  his.  He  puffed  his  cigar  meditatively  and  began 
slowly : 

"I  have  been  much  interested,"  he  said,  "to  learn  all  I 
could  concerning  the  resistance  to  Belgrano's  invasion.  I 
have  talked  about  the  campaign  of  liberation,  as  they  call 
it,  with  Yegros,  Zevallos  and  Gamarra." 

"And  also  with  Caballero  and  Cabanas,"  Francia  inter 
jected. 


354  EL   SUPREMO 

' '  And  also  with  them, ' '  Hawthorne  admitted.  ' '  It  seems 
to  me  that  Belgrano  failed  only  because  he  entered  Para 
guay  with  too  small  a  force  and  capped  that  initial  temer 
ity  by  the  incredible  blunder  of  dividing  his  insufficient 
forces.  Had  he  accumulated  fifteen  hundred  men  before 
he  crossed  the  Parana  instead  of  venturing  with  only  eight 
hundred  he  would  have  succeeded." 

"Your  surmise  is  correct,"  Francia  told  him,  "but  I  do 
not  see  what  that  has  to  do  with  my  troops. ' ' 

"They  tell  me,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "that  Belgrano 
lost  but  eleven  killed  and  twelve  wounded  out  of  eight 
hundred  men  in  four  months'  marching  and  fighting,  in 
cluding  many  skirmishes  and  the  three  so-called  battles  in 
volving  his  entire  forces. ' ' 

"True,"  said  Francia,  "but  I  fail  to  see  the  application." 

"They  tell  me  also,"  Hawthorne  proceeded,  "that  be 
tween  five  and  six  thousand  patriots,  all  told,  gathered  to 
oppose  him  and  that  they  lost  in  killed  nearly  a  hundred 
and  had  about  two  hundred  men  wounded." 

"True  again,"  said  Francia,  "but  how  relevant?" 

"The  relevancy  to  my  valuation  of  your  troops,"  Haw 
thorne  replied,  '  *  is  this :  I  deduce  that  Belgrano  was  over 
come  by  the  accumulation  on  his  front  and  flanks  of  an 
overwhelming  force  of  adversaries  rather  than  really  beaten 
either  at  the  second  fight  at  Paraguary  or  at  the  semi-battle 
on  the  Tacuari.  The  discrepancy  in  the  numbers  killed  on 
hoth  sides  demonstrates  that  the  invaders  were  far  better 
marksmen  than  the  patriots.  That  five  thousand  Para 
guayans  should  kill  only  eleven  enemies  in  three  months 
argues  them  neither  confident,  venturesome  nor  pugna 
cious. 

"So  mild  a  campaign  is  not  a  severe  schooling  for  a 
national  soldiery  and  very  few  of  your  soldiery  can  be 
veterans  of  even  so  moderate  an  experience.  They  can  form 
at  most  only  a  small  nucleus  of  your  present  forces. ' ' 

"A  very  small  nucleus,"  Francia  cut  in. 

"Therefore,"  Hawthorne  summed  up,  "since  nearly  all 
your  soldiers  are  men  who  have  never  known  manoeuvring 
against  a  foe  in  the  field  and  since  few  have  been  under 
even  a  semblance  of  hostile  fire,  I  think  it  a  downright 
miracle  that  a  bookish  man,  never  near  a  battle  or  skirmish, 
never  even  with  any  force  in  the  field,  without  any  military 


FLEAS   AND   ECLIPSES  355 

training-  whatever,  has  been  able  to  create  so  smart  appear 
ing  a  body  of  troops  out  of  such  unpromising  material. ' ' 

' '  There  is  not  a  man  under  five  feet  seven  nor  over  thirty- 
five  years  old, ' '  Francia  retorted.  ' '  Why  unpromising  ma 
terial?" 

''Because  most  of  them,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "have 
never  been  so  much  as  on  a  regular  expedition ;  few  have 
ever  faced  an  enemy  in  the  field,  fewer  have  taken  part  in 
anything  like  fighting,  and  fewer  still  have  been  under  fire ; 
and  that  fire  did  not  amount  to  much,  even  at  Para- 
guary." 

'  *  All  just  observations, ' '  Francia  ruminated.  ' '  And  you 
think  I  have  done  well  with  them?" 

"Miraculously,  as  I  said  before,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"I  hear  a  reservation  in  your  tone,"  Francia  gloomed. 
"What  more  could  I  do?" 

"You,"  said  Hawthorne,  "could  accomplish  no  more. 
Perhaps  no  other  man  could  accomplish  as  much.  Under 
any  other  man  they  might  deteriorate.  But  it  is  certain 
that  you  have  carried  them  as  far  towards  being  soldiers 
as  could  any  man  not  experienced  in  actual  warfare." 

"Experienced  in  actual  warfare!"  Francia  echoed. 
"There  are  only  two  such  men  in  Paraguay." 

"I  was  speaking  theoretically,"  Hawthorne  disclaimed, 
"and  in  general  terms." 

"Let  us  be  practical,"  Francia  said,  "and  particularise 
even  to  personalities.  I  cannot  make  you  my  drill-master, 
as  you  are  an  alien  in  all  respects.  The  men  would  not  tol 
erate  it,  and  I  myself  am  suspicious  of  all  foreigners  and  let 
none  any  further  into  my  secrets  than  would  be  safe  if  I 
were  sure  he  were  an  enemy  plotting  against  me.  I  shall 
never  give  a  foreigner  any  official  employment,  on  princi 
ple,  far  less  a  position  of  trust,  even  if  he  had  saved  my 
life  ten  times. ' ' 

"I  asked  nothing,  hinted  nothing,"  Hawthorne  coun 
tered,  '  *  nor  did  I  mean  myself. ' ' 

' '  I  know, ' '  Francia  said.  '  *  I  am  only  mixing  generalities 
with  my  personalities.  There  remains  Don  Beltran." 

1 '  I  did  not  name  him  either, ' '  Hawthorne  disavowed. 

"You  did  not  need  to  name  him,"  Francia  declared; 
"the  inference  was  inevitable.  Yfhat  interests  me  most  in 
your  judgment  of  my  troops  is  that  it  coincides  with  mine. 


356  EL   SUPREMO 

They  are  adequate  for  maintaining  internal  peace,  but, 
should  Paraguay  be  menaced  from  without  by  a  really  for 
midable  force,  they  would  break  like  a  broomstick,  instead 
of  slashing  like  a  sabre.  I  had  thought  of  Don  Beltran  as 
a  godsend  the  moment  I  heard  of  his  participation  against 
Soult  and  Massena.  He  has  learnt  war  in  a  real  school. 
He  has  watched  more  men  die  in  an  hour  than  were  hurt 
on  both  sides  in  the  three  months  from  Belgrano's  crossing 
the  Parana  till  he  surrendered.  He  has  the  experience. 

"But  experience  is  not  everything.  I  am  studying  that 
young  man.  He  may  be  a  dangerous  firebrand.  He  might 
side  with  the  old  Spaniards,  for  all  he  and  his  father  before 
him  were  Creoles  born  and  his  grandmother  a  loyal  patriot. 
But  I  trust  not.  I  should  grieve  to  think  of  him  in  a 
dungeon  or  on  the  T)anquillo.  He  is  too  good  to  imprison 
or  shoot.  Even  if  loyal  he  may  be  too  vain  or  fickle  to 
confide  in.  I  must  be  sure.  But  if  he  is  what  I  take  him 
to  be  he  may  be  of  much  use  to  me  and  render  noble  service 
to  his  country. ' ' 

"I  agree  with  you,"  Hawthorne  said. 

"I  hope,"  Francia  said,  "you  also  agree  with  me  that  a 
game  of  chess  would  be  agreeable." 

1 '  I  do, "  Hawthorne  assented. 

Francia  lost  the  first  game  and  won  the  second. 

"I  always  prefer  castling  on  the  queen's  side,"  he  said, 
taking  a  big  pinch  of  snuff. 

"By  the  way,"  he  added,  "I  have  been  waiting  to  show 
you  my  arsenal.  You  saw  the  facts  and  told  me  the  truth 
about  my  troops.  Perhaps  I  may  gain  some  useful  hints 
from  you  about  my  arsenal  or  have  some  of  my  views  cor 
roborated.  Come  in  the  morning.  I  cannot  exhibit  an 
arsenal  in  the  dark." 

Hawthorne  took  the  hint  and  his  leave. 


THE   LISTS  357 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  LISTS 
(1) 

AT  the  Palacio,  early  next  day,  Hawthorne  found  the 
Dictator  much  as  he  had  seen  him  on  his  second  morn 
ing  visit,  when  the  sentry  had  had  him  arrested  by  mistake ; 
only  this  time  Francia  had  in  his  lap  not  a  leather  belt,  hut 
a  blue  cloth  uniform  coat  and  the  soldiers  held  pinioned  be 
fore  him  not  a  shoemaker  but  a  tailor.  To  greet  Hawthorne 
Francia  rose,  hanging  the  coat  over  the  back  of  the  chair. 

"Be  seated,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said.  "We  are  again 
subjected  to  the  annoyance  of  a  trifling  but  unescapable 
interruption. ' ' 

And  he  reseated  himself,  nervously  fingering  the  coat. 

"I  tell  you,"  he  said,  glaring  at  the  tailor,  "I  will  prove 
it  to  you." 

The  wretched  tailor  shrugged  both  shoulders  and  rolled 
up  his  eyes. 

"Why  are  they  so  slow  with  the  table?"  Francia  ex 
claimed  testily. 

As  he  spoke  there  lurched  into  view  from  under  the  colon 
nade  a  sort  of  clump  of  men,  all  tugging  and  lifting  to  the 
limit  of  their  strength,  half  carrying,  half  dragging  a  huge, 
unwieldy  table,  built  with  the  clumsy  massiveness  and  un 
necessary  lavishness  of  wood  common  in  Paraguay.  It  was 
more  than  five  feet  wide  and  all  of  twenty  long,  had  six 
mighty  legs,  connected  and  braced  near  their  lower  ends 
by  great  cross-beams,  while  its  top  was  a  slab  of  lapacho 
wood  a  span  thick.  Barely  moving  their  load  they  shuf 
fled  across  the  patio. 

When  the  table  was  placed  near  the  Dictator's  chair, 
Bopi  appeared  and  laid  upon  it  a  bolt  of  blue  cloth. 

"Where  is  that  assistant?"  Francia  queried,  waving 
away  the  porters. 

Just  at  that  moment  Zorilla  entered  with  six  soldiers,  two 
of  them  holding  another  tailor,  even  smaller  and  paler  than 
the  first.  He  carried  a  square,  yard-stick,  tape-measure, 
shears,  chalk  and  other  tailors'  appliances. 


358  EL   SUPREMO 

Francia  sprang  to  his  feet  and  himself  unrolled  the 
bolt  of  cloth  and  spread  it  smoothly  on  the  long  table. 
Casting  the  coat  upon  it,  he  seized  the  square,  tape  and 
chalk  from  the  trembling  apprentice  and  proceeded  to 
measure  each  seam  of  the  coat  and  to  lay  off  on  the  cloth 
patterns  for  pieces  identical  with  those  of  which  the  gar 
ment  was  constructed,  pausing  to  send  Bopi  for  a  pair  of 
compasses,  with  which  he  checked  and  verified  his  measure 
ments. 

When  every  outline  was  clearly  chalked  he  turned  to  the 
tailor. 

"Observe,  ~bribonazo,"  he  said,  "that  I  have  left  a  wide 
margin  for  seams  around  every  piece.  I  have  not  crowded 
the  outlines  nor  skimped  the  intervals.  Note  that  a  gen 
erous  allowance  of  cloth  for  such  a  coat  as  you  have  made 
comes  to  a  full  quarter  of  a  yard  less  than  you  report  that 
you  consumed  in  making  this  botch.  Do  you  acknowledge 
all  this?" 

"It  is  true,"  said  the  tailor  sullenly.  "I  must  admit 
it.  ' 

"Then  I  have  proved,  as  I  told  you  I  would,7'  Francia 
concluded,  "that  you  either  stole  or  wasted  a  full  quarter 
of  a  yard  of  the  nation 's  cloth. ' ' 

"Wasted  unintentionally  perhaps,"  the  tailor  admitted, 
"but  not  stole." 

"I  am  not  so  sure  about  that,  Iribon,"  said  the  Dictator, 
taking  snuff.  He  pointed  to  a  part  of  his  drawings. 

"Observe,"  he  went  on,  "that  these  pieces  are  laid  off 
on  a  single  quarter  of  a  yard  of  cloth.  Now  I  am  about 
to  measure  off  for  you  the  amount  here  proved  necessary 
for  a  uniform  coat  of  this  cut,  less  one  quarter  of  a  yard. 
You  will  then  make  and  bring  for  my  inspection  a  coat  like 
this,;  when  approved,  that  coat  will  wipe  out  all  scores  up 
to  the  hour  at  which  you  present  it,  and  I  will  pay  you  as 
usual  for  making  it." 

"But,"  the  tailor  protested,  "I  cannot  make  a  coat  out 
of  so  little  cloth." 

"-Perhaps  not,"  Francia  retorted,  "and  then  again  you 
might  find  a  quarter  of  a  yard  of  similar  cloth  lying  about 
somewhere,  forgotten  or  unnoticed.  If  you  bring  the  coat, 
well  and  good.  If  not,  perhaps  I  can  find  a  gallows  or  a 
gibbet  standing  about  somewhere  disused  and  ignored. ' ' 


THE   LISTS  359 

The  tailor  visibly  cringed. 

"I  shall  do  my  best,"  he  whined. 

"You'll  succeed,"  Francia  chuckled,  "have  no  fear. 

Then,  to  Bopi,  he  called : 

"Where  is  that  box?" 

While  Bopi  was  gone  he  measured  and  cut  off  the  amount 
of  cloth  he  had  stipulated. 

When  the  coffer  was  brought  he  unlocked  it  with  a  small 
brass  key,  took  from  its  depths  a  carefully  considered  quan 
tity  of  linen  thread,  which  he  laid  on  the  cloth,  and  then, 
from  a  sliding  tray,  picked  out  some  needles. 

"Here,"  he  said  to  the  tailor,  "is  the  cloth,  here  is  the 
thread,  here  are  the  needles;  a  big  one,  two  medium-sized, 
and  three  small. ' ' 

"I  cannot  make  a  coat  with  so  few  needles,  the  tailor 
expostulated.  ' '  No  skill  can  avoid  breaking  needles.  There 
should  be  at  least  one  more  of  each,  by  just  allowance." 

"Behold  them!"  Francia  replied.  "In  all  things,  as  in 
this,  you  shall  have  justice.  Now  go!" 

And  he  sat  down,  calling : 

"Bopi!    Mate." 

Over  their  steaming  gourds  he  observed  to  Hawthorne : 

"You  may  think  such  minutiae  beneath  my  dignity.  Per 
haps  they  are.  But  success  in  all  things,  particularly  in 
economy,  is  made  up  of  small  scrutinies  of  details.  The 
Intendentes  were  always  in  debt  because  they  never  con 
sidered  how  to  make  their  income  cover  their  outgo  nor 
how  to  adjust  their  expenditures  to  their  resources.  All 
South  America  has  had  the  habit,  since  the  days  of  Pizarro^ 
Irala  and  Mendoza,  of  incurring  obligations  without  consid 
ering  how  or  where  the  money  to  meet  them  might  be 
raised.  I  must  make  both  ends  of  my  accounts  meet;  I 
must  save ;  I  must  accumulate  cash,  I  must  keep  my  soldiers 
paid,  clothed,  fed,  housed  and  satisfied.  !_mu§£jaotjgL: 
POYfiriab  my  people  with  imposts.^  Therefore  I  must  watch 
every  needle,  every  inch  01  threSl." 

As  he  was  declaiming  Bopi  returned  and  spoke,  of  course, 
in  Gruarani. 

"Who?"  Francia  queried.    "Well,  have  her  shown  in. 
Hawthorne  saw  approach  Dona  Pilar  Carisimo. 
Francia  rose  haughtily. 
"Well,"  he  queried,  "what  brings  you  here?" 


360  EL   SUPREMO 

"My  husband/7  the  poor  lady  gasped,  tottering  where 
she  stood,  the  tears  running  down  her  face. 

"Your  husband,  Madam,''  the  Dictator  said  severely, 
* '  merely  went  to  prison.  You  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  he 
should  have  been  sent  to  the  banquillo.  Be  thankful  that 
my  soft-heartedness  led  me  to  shirk  an  unpleasant  duty  and 
punish  him  less  than  he  deserved.  Rejoice  that  he  is 
elive." 

"But  he  will  die,"  Dona  Pilar  wailed.  "He  cannot  live 
•*  week  as  he  is  and  such  a  horrible  death. ' ' 

1 '  What  do  you  mean  ? ' '  Francia  demanded. 

"They  riveted  on  him,"  Dona  Pilar  explained,  "grilles 
of  the  usual  size.  They  are  far  too  small.  Both  ankles  have 
ulcerated,  the  left  all  the  way  round  and  deeply,  and  the 
Ulcers  on  the  other  leg  are  almost  meeting.  Nothing  can 
avert  gangrene  and  he  is  certain  to  die." 

"Bopi!"  Francia  called.    "Bring  the  lady  a  chair." 

He  next  offered  her  mate,  and,  on  her  declining  that,  had 
Bopi  fetch  water,  which  she  drank.  He  then  gave  Bopi 
further  orders  and,  as  he  went  off,  rooted  among  the  litter 
on  his  little  table  till  he  found  a  quill  and  his  notebook,  on 
a  page  of  which  he  scribbled. 

When  Bopi  returned  with  a  small  vial  he  handed  it  to 
Dona  Pilar. 

"There,"  he  said,  "you  have  some  Guarani  eye-lotion 
for  your  husband's  ulcers.  Here  is  the  order  to  have 
riveted  on  him  fetters  as  large  as  are  necessary  for  his 
corpulence,  as  large  as  is  safe,  considering  his  very  small 
feet.  But  the  first  set  will  not  be  filed  off  until  the  second 
are  in  place  and  nothing  will  be  done  unless  you  show  the 
cash  to  pay  for  all,  for  I  cannot  charge  the  state  with  the 
cost  of  more  than  one  barra  de  grillos  for  each  prisoner." 

The  lady's  feelings  must  have  been  as  mixed  as  Haw 
thorne's,  who  could  not  conjecture  whether  her  tears  were 
more  the  product  of  surprise  and  gratitude  or  of  rage  and 
contempt. 

When  she  was  gone  Francia  said: 

"In  your  capacity  of  licensed  visitor  of  prisons  I  wish 
you  would  sound  her  old  fool  of  a  husband  and  tell  me 
how  big  a  fine  he  thinks  he  can  pay.  Then  I'll  double  it 
and  get  him  off  my  mind.  These  women  worry  me  to 
death." 


THE   LISTS  361 

He  sighed,  lit  a  fresh  cigar  and  resumed: 

' '  Now  I  can  show  you  my  arsenal. ' ' 

He  led  the  way  to  a  wagon-archway  at  the  back  of  the 
patio.  It  was  blocked  by  gates  of  stout  iron  bars,  tall  and 
spiked  at  the  top,  fastened  with  big  brass  padlocks  at  bot 
tom,  middle  and  as  high  as  a  man  could  reach.  "When  they 
had  passed  this  and  it  was  locked  behind  them  they  con 
fronted  an  equally  tall  set  of  gates  of  wood,  heavily  iron- 
bound.  When  these  were  unlocked  and  opened  they  showed 
six  inches  thick  or  more.  Francia  fastened  them  behind 
him  with  two  bars  and  a  bolt  inside,  hanging  to  the  bolt 
the  padlocks  he  had  removed  from  the  front. 

1 '  Here  we  resign  ourselves  to  do  without  cigars, ' '  Francia 
remarked,  throwing  his  on  the  pavement  and  carefully 
treading  it  out.  Hawthorne  did  the  same. 

There  was  a  third  set  of  gates  like  the  first.  These  ad 
mitted  them  to  a  patio  slightly  larger  than  the  one  they 
had  left  and  all  bare  pavement,  so  that  it  appeared  much 
more  extensive  than  the  fore-court  with  its  twelve  orange- 
trees.  Hawthorne  recognised  the  odour  of  gunpowder  he 
had  smelt  in  the  dark  as  he  crossed  it  in  the  moonlight  the 
memorable  first  evening  he  had  spent  with  Francia. 

Under  the  left-hand  arcade  of  the  court  were  cannon; 
forty  cannon;  twelve  iron  and  twenty-eight  brass.  Two 
were  sixteen-pounders,  both  of  iron ;  five  were  brass  twelve- 
pounders,  no  two  of  the  same  design ;  there  were  six  brass 
and  ten  iron  eight-pounders ;  three  six-pounders,  brass,  and 
as  odd  as  the  twelve-pounders.  The  rest  were  brass  four- 
pounders. 

Only  the  six  brass  eight-pounders  were  mounted  ready 
for  use  as  a  field-battery,  on  wheeled  gun-carriages  with 
limbers  and  caissons.  The  seven  largest  guns  were  indeed 
fitted  with  carriages,  but  without  wheels  and  scarcely  bet 
ter  than  the  rough  skids  on  which  the  other  twenty-five 
rested. 

Hawthorne  examined  them  carefully. 

' '  You  approach  them  with  a  sort  of  reverence, ' '  Francia 
remarked! 

"I  tugged  at  the  ropes  with  the  rest,"  said  Hawthorne, 
"all  up  and  down  the  valleys  from  Merida  and  Trujillo 
to  Caracas  during  Bolivar's  great  ninety  days.  One  comes 
to  feel  that  a  gun  is  as  much  alive  as  a  ship." 


362  EL   SUPREMO 

The  far  side  of  the  patio,  facing  the  gate,  was  all  one 
store-house  of  small  arms  under  the  colonnade. 

Hawthorne  gazed  at  some  two  thousand  good  muskets  and 
carbines,  ranged  in  well-made  racks,  and  at  an  amazing  col 
lection  of  blunderbusses,  fowling-pieces,  musketoons,  match 
locks,  arquebuses,  firelocks,  wheel-locks  and  other  antiquated 
or  obsolete  weapons,  all  ranked  up  in  piles  like  cord-wood, 
fully  four  thousand  of  them.  With  these  were  pell-mell 
heaps  of  horse-pistols,  dags,  and  other  old-fashioned  and 
rococo  weapons  perhaps  more  numerous  than  the  antiquated 
hand-guns.  There  were  also  some  three  thousand  pairs  of 
reasonably  good  pistols. 

The  third  side  of  the  patio  was  all  sabres,  fully  eight 
thousand  of  them,  half  of  them  good  and  in  racks,  the  rest 
of  obsolete  patterns,  piled  up  higgledy-piggledy,  mixed  with 
hangers,  rapiers,  courtswords,  cutlasses,  daggers,  poniards, 
even  foils ;  every  sort  of  stabbing  and  slashing  weapon,  all 
more  or  less  rusted. 

Between  the  two  largest  heaps  was  a  large  grindstone. 
Francia  stared  at  it  and  called : 

"Bopi!" 

When  the  boy  appeared  he  went  straight  to  the  grind 
stone  and  began  to  turn  the  handle. 

Francia  unsheathed  his  long  sabre,  squinted  along  the 
edge,  held  it  to  the  grindstone,  and  when,  after  many  in 
spections  and  applications,  it  was  to  his  taste,  resheathed  it. 

* '  I  have  read  somewhere, ' '  he  remarked, '  *  about  a  Hindoo 
proverb  to  the  effect  that  a  sharp  sabre  cuts  in  any  hands. 
Mine  are  not  the  least  skilled  nor  the  weakest  in  Paraguay, 
but  they  grow  older  each  night.  I  keep  my  sabre  sharp." 

Bopi  had  already  vanished. 

In  the  portion  of  the  arcade  to  the  right  of  the  gate  as 
they  had  come  in,  were  disposed  some  two  thousand  lances, 
all  apparently  in  good  condition.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
gate  were  ranked  under  the  colonnade  symmetrical  pyra 
mids  of  cannon-balls ;  one  of  six-pound  balls,  many  of  four- 
pounds,  and  a  fair  supply  of  eight-pound  balls;  but  none 
of  twelve  or  sixteen  pounds  that  Hawthorne  saw.  He  noted 
silently  that  the  supply  of  ammunition  for  the  small  arms 
and  of  powder  was  as  inadequate  in  proportion  to  the  num 
ber  of  arms  as  were  the  balls  for  the  cannon. 

"These  are  all  the  cannon  in  Paraguay,"  Francia  said, 


THE   LISTS  363 

"ten  only  excepted.  I  keep  two  at  Forquilha  and  two  at 
Voquita  in  case  of  the  improbable  eventuality  of  a  Portu 
guese  invasion.  The  other  six  are  at  Neembucu  to  command 
the  river." 

At  this  moment  Bopi  appeared,  from  what  direction 
Hawthorne  could  not  guess,  and  spoke  some  words  in  Gua- 
rani. 

1 '  Who  ? ' '  Francia  snapped.    l '  Oh,  show  him  in. ' ' 

And  he  smiled  and  rubbed  his  hands. 

Bopi  returned  with  a  gunsmith  and  porter,  carrying 
eight  muskets  newly  repaired. 

Francia  examined  the  lock  and  pan  of  each  musket, 
picked  up  each  in  succession,  set  it  to  his  shoulder,  sighted 
along  the  barrel,  pulled  the  trigger,  and,  when  the  flint 
struck  good  fire,  laughed  like  a  boy. 

As  he  handed  the  last  back  to  the  porter  he  turned  to 
Hawthorne,  his  face  all  smiles,  and  exclaimed : 

"What  do  you  think,  Don  Guillermo,  will  my  muskets 
carry  a  ball  to  the  heart  of  an  enemy?" 

On  Hawthorne's  assenting  he  concluded: 

"We'll  go  out  by  way  of  my  study  and  the  garden." 


(2) 

That  very  afternoon  there  was  a  full  meeting  of  the 
revolutionists  at  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop.  Parlett  himself 
had  left  word  with  Don  Vicente,  who  told  Hawthorne  when 
he  returned  from  the  Government  House. 

Hawthorne  had  learned  never  to  take  liberties  with  any 
climate.  After  dinner  he  slept  out  his  siesta,  but  lost  no 
time  when  he  woke.  To  the  wine-shop  he  went  direct,  as 
nobody  ever  attempted  concealment  about  resorting  to  it 
and  it  was  usually  well  filled,  often  crowded. 

Crowded  it  was  when  he  arrived  as  on  his  first  introduc 
tion  to  his  fellow-conspirators.  Also  Dr.  Parlett  was  simi 
larly  ensconced  in  the  portico.  Inside  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  snuff-taking,  health-drinking  and  laboriously  trivial 
chat  following  greetings.  Presently  Parlett  whistled  some 
bars  of  ' *  Yankee  Doodle ' '  and  the  company  at  once  relaxed 
and  Dr.  Bargas  remarked: 

"Gentlemen,  my  house  is  yours.    Use  it  as  you  please." 


EL   SUPREMO 

Spoke  Don  Eustaquio: 

' '  As  acting  secretary  it  falls  to  me,  Senor  Don  Guillermo, 
to  communicate  to  you  that  we  have  taken  your  advice  and 
Have  formed  a  provisional  government  so  that  we  may  act 
as  a  belligerent  nation  from  the  moment  we  become  insur 
gents.  Don  Atanacio  has  been  chosen  President  and  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army,  and  in  imitation  of  your 
honoured  nation,  we  have  designated  Don  Segundo  to  be 
Vice-President  and  to  take  his  place  should  we  lose  him; 
Don  Cipriano  is  to  be  finance  minister,  and  Don  Hilarion, 
treasurer;  Don  Sinforiano,  minister  of  war,  Don  Jerman, 
general  of  infantry,  Don  Fulgencio,  commander  of  cavalry, 
and  Don  Fernando,  minister  of  justice;  Don  Jacinto, 
notary,  and  myself,  secretary.  Don  Atanacio  will  now  pre 
side." 

"Don  Atanacio,"  said  Cabanas,  "wishes  to  preside  only 
to  this  extent :  that  he  reminds  you  and  may  from  time  to 
time  repeat  that  no  semblance  of  a  formal  meeting  must 
appear.  We  are  casually  met  at  a  wine-shop." 

4 1 1  am  to  understand, ' '  Hawthorne  asked,  ' '  that  you  ac 
cept  me  as  an  accomplice?" 

A  chorus  answered  him. 

"Then  it  grieves  me  to  have  to  tell  you,"  Hawthorne 
said,  "that  I  fear  we  are  already  suspected." 

The  chorus  this  time  was  of  alarmed  queries  instead  of 
enthusiastic  acclamations. 

Hawthorne  told  of  Francia's  coupling  mention  of  the 
wine-shop  with  a  sneer  about  his  hosts  of  new  friends;  of 
the  meaning  way  in  which  he  had  shown  first  his  troops  and 
then  his  arsenal;  of  his  apparently  accidental  remark  that 
he  never  let  a  foreigner  further  into  his  secrets  than 
would  be  safe  if  he  were  an  enemy  and  a  plotter;  and 
especially  of  his  repeating  part  of  the  English  words  of 
"Little  Bo-Peep"  at  Ibirai. 

"Don  Guillermo,"  spoke  Parlett  from  the  door,  still 
glancing  behind  him,  "has  already  told  rne  that.  There  is 
no  indication  in  it  that  old  Sour-Face  has  wind  of  us,  for 
I  was  a  great  deal  in  his  company  just  after  I  came  to  Asun 
cion,  before  he  tired  of  his  last  new  toy,  and  his  Bopi  was 
the  first  I  saw.  I  dubbed  him  Bo-Peep  then  and  there  and 
sang  the  song  for  him.  He  is  very  vain  of  catching  foreign 
words  at  once,  and  made  me  drill  him  till  he  had  the  whole 


THE   LISTS  365 

song  correctly.  His  other  suspicious  utterance*  are  just 
samples  of  the  chance  shots  he  is  everlastingly  letting  off  at 
unexpected  moments  to  test  any  one  he  talks  with." 

The  assembly  fully  agreed  with  him,  and  their  alarm 
palpably  disappeared. 

"Our  minds  are  easy  so  far,"  said  Cabanas.  "What 
next?" 

' '  I  should  like  to  ask, ' '  Hawthorne  said,  ' '  why  a  finance 
minister  and  also  a  treasurer  are  necessary  ?  Why  not  one 
man  for  both  offices?" 

The  gathering  was  visibly  embarrassed. 

Don  Bernardo  finally  replied. 

"It  is  a  tradition  from  early  colonial  days,"  he  said, 
' '  never  to  entrust  any  one  man  with  the  collection,  care  and 
disbursement  of  public  moneys.  Whenever  the  custom  was 
experimentally  transgressed  the  innovation  worked  badly. 
So  we  follow  precedent.  Don  Cipriano  will  collect  con 
tributions,  Don  Hilarion  care  for  the  funds,  and  both  con 
cur  in  disbursements." 

"Have  you  any  more  questions,  Senor  Don  Guillermo?" 
Cabafias  queried. 

On  Hawthorne 's  replying  in  the  negative  Don  Eustaquio 
said : 

"We  have  already  progressed  remarkably.  Every  old 
Spaniard  approached  has  joined  us  except  Don  Prudencio 
la  Guardia.  Many  Creoles  have  also  joined  us.  We  have 
signed  promises  of  contributions  of  money  or  lump  silver 
to  the  amount  of  two  hundred  thousand  pesos,  which  is  fully 
half  a  year 's  revenue  of  the  existing  government.  In  spite 
of  the  inquisitorial  and  prolonged  searches  and  the  repeated 
proclamation  of  severe  penalties,  there  are  still  arms  con 
cealed  in  Paraguay,  even  in  Asuncion ;  many  arms  and  not 
a  few  of  them  good.  These  are  at  our  service,  and  we  have 
even  in  this  brief  period  learned  of  four  hundred  good 
muskets,  thirteen  hundred  small  arms  of  various  old-fash 
ioned  makes,  arid  three  hundred  cavalry  lances ;  while  every 
one  of  our  sympathisers  has  a  good  sabre  and  a  pair  of 
pistols  in  excellent  order;  some  have  two  pairs  of  pistols 
and  several  swords." 

"That  sounds  all  very  fine,"  Gamarra  put  in,  "but  what 
good  are  pistols  and  muskets  without  powder?" 

"Powder  is  not  altogether  lacking,"  Guerreros  replied. 


366  EL   SUPREMO 

11  Nearly  every  one  of  our  partisans  has  a  little  powder. 
Each  has  pledged  himself  to  reserve  half  of  what  he  has. 
The  trade  in  powder  is  jealously  watched,  but  the  demand 
by  hunters  and  gunners  is  continual  and  the  authorities  are 
used  to  it.  Each  of  our  party  will  buy  his  usual  quantity 
a  little  oftener  than  usual  and  add  half  of  each  purchase 
to  his  hoard." 

"That  won't  yield  ten  rounds  a  musket  a  year  from 
now,"  Gamarra  sneered. 

1 '  Also, ' '  Dr.  Bargas  prophesied, ' '  by  a  year  from  now  we 
shall  have  heard  of  many  more  muskets. ' ' 

*  *  We  have  thought  of  all  that, ' '  Don  Cipriano  said,  ' '  and 
as  it  is  impossible  to  buy  powder  except  in  trifling  quan 
tities  and  equally  impossible  to  import  or  smuggle  any,  I 
have  considered  not  only  gathering  contributions  of  cash, 
but  of  raw  material.  Don  Guillermo  told  us  at  our  first 
meeting  of  his  ability  to  make  powder.  So  Sinforiano  and 
I  have  cast  about  for  supplies  of  saltpetre  and  sulphur. 

"  Charcoal  we  can  get  anywhere  and  good  willow 
charcoal  in  abundance.  Sulphur  is  mined  at  Piro- 
bebuy,  but  that,  of  course,  is  in  the  hands  of  our  enemy. 
I  am  making  enquiries  in  the  hope  that  some  other  sulphur 
deposit  has  been  discovered  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Piro- 
bebuy  and  concealed. 

' '  There  remains  the  question  of  saltpetre.  The  supply  on 
hand  is  as  jealously  guarded  and  the  importation  as  closely 
watched  as  is  gunpowder  itself.  We  must  therefore  gather 
it." 

" Chile  saltpetre,"  Hawthorne  put  in,  "will  not  make 
gunpowder.  It  attracts  moisture  and  becomes  damp,  as 
does  any  mixture  of  which  it  forms  part. ' ' 

' '  Irala  learnt  that,  and  we  from  him, ' '  said  Don  Cipriano. 

' '  What  profit  then, ' '  said  Hawthorne,  *  *  in  gathering  salt 
petre?" 

"Do  you  know  how  to  refine  saltpetre?"  Don  Cipriano 
queried. 

"I  do,"  said  Hawthorne.  "It  is  easy  when  one  knows 
how." 

"That  is  all  we  need,"  Don  Cipriano  replied.  "For  we 
make  it.  We  have  nitriaries  all  over  Paraguay,  one  at  least 
to  each  ^stancia  or  hacienda,  ever  since  Saavedra's  time." 

"I  ki  ;w  nothing,"  Hawthorne  confessed,  "of  making 


THE    LISTS  367 

saltpetre.  I  handled  it  only  as  imported  from  India  or 
China.  What  is  a  nitriary?" 

"A  dung-pile,"  Don  Cipriano  explained,  "through  which 
are  mixed  lime,  ashes,  butchers'  offal,  carrion,  kitchen  refuse 
and  all  sorts  of  decaying  ordure,  flesh  and  bones.  It  is 
kept  covered  from  rain  and  stirred  at  intervals.  Saltpetre 
forms  just  under  its  upper  surface  and  even  deeper.  Crude 
saltpetre  as  gathered  out  of  the  nitriaries  has  been  paid  for 
cash  down  in  silver  at  the  rate  of  one  quarter  of  the  current 
price  of  gunpowder.  Or  if  the  producer  wanted  gunpowder 
in  exchange,  it  was  customary  to  accept  four  pounds  of 
saltpetre  as  worth  a  pound  of  gunpowder." 

1 '  The  nitriaries, ' '  Don  Bernardo  spoke  up,  ' '  are  all  care 
fully  listed  and  inspected  and  their  product  collected  by 
the  government.  They  have  been  ever  since  Saavedra  estab 
lished  them.  Francia  has  certainly  been  as  inquisitive 
about  them  as  about  any  other  source  of  supply.  We  can 
not  hope  to  get  anything  from  them." 

*  *  Already, ' '  said  Don  Cipriano  triumphantly, ' '  more  than 
two  hundred  estancieros  have  halved  their  nitriaries,  and, 
without  visibly  diminishing  the  old  one,  or  leaving  any  trace 
of  disturbance,  have  established  new  ones  in  secret.  The 
produce  of  these  will  be  gathered  for  us  and  in  a  year  we 
shall  have  enough  saltpetre  to  make  five  hundred  rounds  of 
powder  for  every  musket  and  pistol  we  can  gather.  Char 
coal,  as  I  said,  will  be  plentiful  and  of  sulphur  I  have  good 
hopes." 

"Hopes,"  Machain  said,  "are  fine  food.  Have  we  any 
topes  of  cannon  ? ' ' 

"Rome,"  said  Hawthorne,  "was  not  built  in  a  day,  nor 
can  freedom,  from  such  an  adversary  as  we  have,  be  won 
quickly.  The  last  thing  we  do  before  we  take  the  field  will 
be  powder-making.  The  next  to  the  last  will  be  gun- 
finishing.  Gun-casting  must  come  before  that  and  can  only 
be  attained  after  a  long  period  of  making  and  secreting 
iron  pigs. 

"I  have  not  yet  made  up  my  mind  how  to  arrange  for 
accumulating  our  indispensable  store  of  pig  iron.  On  the 
one  hand  we  might  make  it  surreptitiously  in  the  course  of 
producing  malleable  iron,  concealing  the  fact  that  we  could 
make  cast  iron.  This  would  be  difficult  but  possible,  and 
it  recommends  itself  to  me  because  I  dread  that  the  instant 


368  EL   SUPREMO 

that  the  word  *  cast-iron'  falls  on  our  adversary's  ears  he 
will  promptly  ask  me  whether  I  can  cast  cannon :  the  mere 
idea  of  cast-iron  will  inevitably  suggest  casting  cannon. 

' i  On  the  other  hand  I  perceive  the  improbability  of  con 
cealing  the  existence  of  blast-ovens,  however  we  disguise 
them  as  usual  reduction- furnaces.  I  should  like  to  hit  upon 
some  plausible  reason  for  producing  castings,  even  large 
castings,  of  obvious  commercial  value.  It  would  then  be 
equally  easy  to  lay  up  a  secret  hoard  of  pig-iron  and  to 
disclaim  any  knowledge  of  cannon-casting  as  a  far  more 
difficult  branch  of  the  moulder 's  art. 

"In  any  case,  the  establishment  of  reduction-forges  for 
fabricating  malleable  iron  would  be  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  any  such  operations.  Permission  to  set  up  such  forges 
can  only  follow  my  discovery  of  tempting  deposits  of  ore.  I 
have  not  yet  had  a  chance  for  any  explorations  of  the 
country,  as  I  have  but  barely  familiarised  myself  with 
Asuncion  and  its  environs.  "We  must  be  patient." 

"At  the  rate  you  indicate,"  Machain  sneered,  "we  shall 
all  die  of  old  age  before  we  initiate  our  insurrection." 

' '  Everybody  knows  your  impetuosity,  Bstanislao, ' '  Padre 
Melquiades  replied.  "The  point  is  that  Don  Guillermo's 
project  is  a  promising  means  of  securing  liberty  at  last. 
If  you  can  offer  an  equally  plausible  scheme  for  attain 
ing  our  ends  more  promptly,  divulge  it.  We  can  all  think 
of  wild  plans  for  harebrained  ventures  which  might,  if  they 
worked  without  any  hitch,  accomplish  all  we  aim  at  in  a 
night.  But  they  appear  to  all  of  us  direct  roads  to  prison 
and  the  grave,  rather  than  clear  paths  to  security.  Precipi 
tation  can  only  lead  us  to  ruin ;  our  safety  lies  in  delibera 
tion." 

There  was  a  pause. 

"As  Don  Estanislao  has  no  more  to  say,"  Cabanas  ob 
served,  "perhaps  other  matters  might  be  brought  up." 

There  was  another  pause. 

' '  Since  no  more  business  appears, ' '  Don  Eustaquio  said, 
"I  might  offer  general  encouragement  by  impressing  upon 
all  of  us  how  marvellously  we  are  prospering  as  conspira 
tors.  I  have  here  lists  of  those  who  have  pledged  money 
contributions,  of  those  who  have  muskets  in  their  posses 
sion,  of  those  who  have  promised  to  accumulate  powder,  of 
those  who  have  divided  their  nitriaries.  These  I  shall  now 


THE   LISTS  369 

pass  around  in  order  that  all  may  see  with  their  own  eyes 
the  spread  of  our  organisation. ' ' 

"Stop!"  Hawthorne  cried.  "Do  not  let  those  lists  go 
out  of  your  hands." 

Baiz  paused,  the  lists  in  his  hands,  amazed. 

"Why  should  he  not  pass  them  around?"  Cabanas  en 
quired.  "Why  should  we  not  all  see  them?" 

1 '  Don  Atanacio  and  Senors, ' '  Hawthorne  spoke  seriously. 
"Listen  to  me.  Observe." 

All  faced  him  and  he  turned  to  Baiz. 

"Don  Eustaquio,"  he  asked,  "how  many  have  seen  those 
lists?" 

"Besides  myself,"  Baiz  replied,  "Don  Atanacio,  Don 
Bernardo,  and  Don  Cipriano.  The  list  of  nitriaries  has 
also  been  read  by  Don  Sinf oriano. ' ' 

"Consider,  Senors,"  Hawthorne  said,  "that  every  con 
spiracy  has  in  it  at  least  one  possible  traitor,  and,  if  it 
extends  to  membership  enough,  comes  to  include  certainly 
one  spy.  No  one  can  suspect  Don  Sinforiano,  Don  Cipriano, 
Don  Atanacio  or  Don  Bernardo.  The  owners  of  the  names 
on  those  lists  are  as  completely  safe  with  them  as  before 
they  adhered  to  our  movement.  But  every  additional 
sharer  of  any  of  our  secrets  makes  every  one  of  us  that 
much  less  safe.  I  move  that  the  custodians  of  those  lists 
and  of  any  future  similar  lists  be  enjoined  to  keep  them 
as  close  as  possible,  to  show  them  to  not  one  person  more 
than  is  absolutely  necessary. 

"In  particular,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  should  not  see  any 
one  of  those  lists.  I  was  assailed  as  a  probable  tool  of 
the  Dictator  at  our  former  meeting.  You  did  me  the  honour 
to  repudiate  the  suggestion.  But,  having  been  so  assailed, 
I  decline  to  put  myself  in  any  position  where  I  am  liable  to 
fresh  suspicions :  and  I  repeat  that  the  fewer  who  share  the 
burden  of  knowing  the  names  on  those  lists,  the  better  for 
all." 

"Surely,"  Don  Bernardo  said,  "all  this  is  excellent 
sense.  Let  us  adopt  the  suggestion." 

"Let  us!"  Dr.  Bargas  added.  "Not  even  my  renowned 
friend,  the  celebrated  Marquess  de  Torretagle  de  Lima, 
could  utter  wiser  words  or  display  greater  magnanimity." 


370  EL   SUPREMO 


(3) 

Next  morning  Hawthorne  reached  the  end  of  two  matters 
which  he  was  glad  to  conclude. 

The  Chilabers  had  revived  rapidly  in  the  open  air  of 
the  harbour,  under  Dr.  Parlett's  ministrations.  As  they 
advanced  towards  convalescence  Hawthorne  found  them 
progressively  less  likable.  He  had  pitied  them  intensely  in 
their  dungeons:  before  he  saw  the  last  of  them  he  almost 
regretted  having  rescued  them. 

When  the  fever  had  left  them  and  they  had  been  in  the 
barber's  hands,  they  appeared  a  comely  and  personable  pair, 
as  like  as  twins.  Their  aristocratic  demeanour  and  pa 
trician  manners  matched  their  good  looks.  But  they  dis 
played  a  flippancy  of  character  in  which  daredeviltry  for 
its  own  sake  seemed  a  solitary  virtue.  Gratitude  for  Haw 
thorne's  good  offices  they  expressed  with  great  volubility, 
but  it  never  seemed  more  than  a  perfunctory  surface  utter 
ance.  Their  imprisonment  they  regarded  as  a  trifle,  their 
venture  in  Paraguay  as  a  lark,  their  escape  as  a  bit  of  jolly 
sporting  luck.  They  stubbornly  denied  any  guilt  in  act  or 
purpose;  but  the  tales  they  told  with  endless  facility  to 
prove  their  innocence  were  seldom  convincing,  usually 
sounded  like  improvisations  and  sometimes  conflicted  with 
each  other.  By  manifold  innuendoes  and  implications  they 
cynically  hinted,  in  a  sort  of  spirit  of  braggadocio,  at  what 
they  openly  controverted. 

^As  soon  as  they  were  sufficiently  recovered  Hawthorne 
discussed  with  them  their  possible  release  and  its  probable 
terms.  ^They  agreed  to  the  forfeiture  of  their  brig  and 
cargo  with  a  sort  of  maudlin  boisterousness,  as  if  the  whole 
had  been  a  wager  which  they  had  lost  at  gaming. 

Then  Hawthorne  gained  some  knowledge  of  the  queer 
local  form  of  passport  for  leaving  Paraguay.  Dr.  Bargas 
drew  up  this  document  and  Don  Ponciano  Velaustegui, 
Government  Notary  Public,  read  and  reread  it,  examining 
every  word  with  great  care,  before  he  affixed  to  it  the  large 
stamp  or  great  seal  of  the  Republic,  an  impression  of  which 
cost  six  piastres. 

In  form  it  was  something  between  a  letter  and  a  petition 
to  the  Dictator,  and  read : 


THE   LISTS  3711 

' '  Excelentisimo  Senor: 

"Jose  Diego  and  Juan  Alberto  Chilaber,  natives  of  Cor- 
rientes,  now  resident  in  this  republic,  appear  before  Your 
Excellency  with  all  proper  submission,  and  state  that  they 
wish  to  return  to  their  native  place  in  one  of  the  ships  of 
Don  Meliton  Isasi,  a  native  of  this  republic  residing  on 
Calle  Comer cio  in  this  capital  and  a  citizen  of  Buenos 
Aires,  which  ship  is  now  ready  to  sail  for  the  aforemen 
tioned  city.  In  order  to  be  able  to  do  so  they  beg  Your 
Excellency  and  humbly  petition  that  El  Supremo  will  deign 
to  permit  graciously  what  they  beseech  and  hope  to  obtain 
from  Your  Excellency's  kindness. 

1  'Most  excellent  Sir! 

"(Signed)  JOSE  DIEOO  CHILABER, 

"JUAN  ALBERTO  CHILABER, " 

On  this  peculiar  document  the  Dictator  wrote : 

"Asuncion,  July  25th,  1816. 

"Granted  for  the  vessel  specified  or  any  other  that  pre 
sents  itself. " 
And  signed, 

"J.  G.  DE  FRANCIA," 

with  his  paraph  below,  as  always. 

While  the  concerns  of  the  Chilabers  had  been  lagging 
along  from  day  to  day  under  the  obstructive  methods  of 
South  American  official  business  Hawthorne  had  also  been 
occupied  with  efforts  looking  towards  the  release  of  Don 
•Jose  Carisimo. 

Each  day  when  he  visited  the  prison,  he  had  spoken  to 
that  equally  corpulent  and  obstinate  old  gentleman.  At 
first  the  recalcitrant  Don  was  for  dying  a  martyr  in  the 
grip  of  unconscionable  tyranny,  but  his  ulcers  and  resultant 
fever  weakened  his  resolution.  Then  he  offered  two  thou 
sand  dollars,  piastres  or  pesos  as  the  price  of  release.  This 
he  gradually  increased  until  he  promised  full  ten  thousand. 
Then  Hawthorne  obtained  the  necessary  papers.  After 
which  Dona  Pilar  spent  some  days  in  making  up  the  neces 
sary  sum,  part  of  which  she  had  to  borrow.  Finally  there 
was  delay  in  getting  a  Treasury  receipt  from  Don  Olegario, 
then  countersigns  from  Don  Ponciano,  Don  Andres  and 
Don  Policarpo,  and  the  Dictator's  endorsement. 


372  EL   SUPREMO 

So  it  fell  out  that  the  very  morning  on  which  Haw 
thorne  felt  the  relief  of  seeing  the  last  of  the  Chilabers,  as 
their  brig  grew  small,  hurried  round  the  bend  by  wind  and 
current,  Don  Jose  was  released  from  the  prison.  Francia 
had  ordered  that  he  should  be  brought  out  under  guard 
and  conducted  to  his  house  by  way  of  Plaza  Santo  Domingo, 
the  Jesuits'  bridge,  the  Plaza  and  Calle  Concepcion,  to  be 
set  free  at  his  own  door.  The  procession  convoying  his 
mule-litter,  six  soldiers  with  Zorilla  in  charge,  Hawthorne 
overtook  as  he  returned  from  the  landing-stairs. 

At  Mayorga's,  during  dinner,  a  message  invited  him  to 
supper  at  the  Palacio. 

There  Francia,  after  the  usual  greetings  and  snuff-tak 
ings,  spoke  in  his  most  sudden  fashion. 

' '  You  should  be  fairly  well  acquainted  with  Asuncion  by 
this  time." 

On  Hawthorne's  assenting  he  enquired: 

"And  what  do  you  propose  to  do  next?" 

' '  I  had  thought, ' '  Hawthorne  said,  *  *  of  visiting  the  locali 
ties  where  yerba  grows." 

"It  falls  out  excellently  then,"  said  the  Dictator,  "that 
a  brig  is  about  to  clear  for  the  Ypane  Guazu,  carrying  a 
party  of  yerbateros  headed  by  the  brothers  Carbonel,  two  of 
the  most  expert  and  successful  organisers  of  such  expedi 
tions.  I  have  enjoined  them  to  admit  you  as  a  guest  to 
their  vessel  and  caravan.  Can  you  go?" 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"Good!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "The  San  Jose  will  be 
loaded  by  to-morrow.  She  will  sail  at  once  if  you  are  ready. 
If  not  she  will  wait  your  convenience.  I  have  assigned  Don 
Benigno  Lopez  with  six  soldiers  to  accompany  you  and  be 
answerable  for  your  comfort,  fair  treatment  and  safety. 
You  shall  have  a  passport  under  the  small  stamp  free  of 
cost  to  you  as  you  are  on  government  business.  I  need  not 
go  over  with  you  our  many  talks  about  stone  quarries  and 
locations  possible  for  a  penal  settlement.  You  remember 
that  as  well  as  I  do. 

"And  now  let  us  have  supper  and  get  at  our  chess.  I 
shall  miss  you  while  you  are  away." 


THE   LISTS  373 

(4) 

Hawthorne  found  himself  unaffectedly  sorry  to  leave 
Asuncion.  Except  the  shambles  and  the  prison  there  was 
not  an  unpleasant  spot  in  the  city,  which  had,  in  fact,  the 
effect  of  a  very  big  village,  most  of  its  buildings  standing 
apart  amid  trees  and  shrubberies  that  made  the  shabbiest 
cottage  picturesque.  The  inhabitants  were  as  agreeable  as 
their  surroundings.  The  most  shapeless  hovel  was,  in  that 
climate,  a  comfortable  home  for  its  tenants;  the  poorest 
hut  was  kept  neat  and  clean ;  no  one  starved,  even  the  lean 
beggars  were  well-fed,  every  human  being  was  cheerful, 
easy-going  and  merry.  The  diversions  of  the  population 
were  simple  and  scarcely  differed  much  between  the  poorest 
and  richest.  Festivals  like  Dona  Juana's  fiesta  were  rare 
events.  So  magnificent  and  inclusive  a  revel  had  not  oc 
curred  in  the  whole  country  since  the  revolution.  Haw 
thorne  was  a  guest  at  several  other  fiestas;  at  Limpio,  at 
the  estancia  of  Don  Lampadio  Casal ;  at  Ibirai,  at  the  estate 
of  his  brother,  Don  Ladislao;  in  Asuncion  at  the  house  of 
Don  Meliton  Isasi ;  and  others  besides.  They  differed  from 
Dona  Juana's  chiefly  in  having  fewer  guests  and  a  less 
overwhelming  profusion  of  eatables.  In  jollity  and  amenity 
they  were  much  the  same. 

Besides  fiestas,  at  which  the  diversions  were  feasting, 
music,  dancing,  cards  and  conversation,  there  were  almost 
nightly  tertulias;  informal  gatherings  of  the  gentry.  At 
these  dancing  seldom  was  indulged  in,  for  dancing  in  Asun 
cion  implied  a  band,  there  being  in  all  the  capital  but  two 
pianos,  a  half  a  dozen  old  tinkly  harpsichords,  a  few  violins, 
and  fewer  cellos;  while  the  universal  guitars  hardly  pro 
duced  music  enough  for  the  boisterous  local  sarandig. 
Cards  also  were  infrequent  at  tertulias,  where  the  amuse 
ments  were  limited  to  eating  and  drinking,  smoking,  guitar- 
playing  and  singing,  and  conversation  varied  by  many  im 
promptus  and  innumerable  puns.  The  natural  vivacity  of 
the  gentlefolk  and  their  whole-hearted  enjoyment  of  their 
inartificial  pleasures,  made  them  all  very  delightful  to  Haw 
thorne.  He  not  only  had  enjoyed  the  fiestas,  tertulias,  bath 
ing  parties,  dinners  and  suppers  in  which  he  had  par 
ticipated,  bttt  had  formed  close  friendships.  He  fairly 


374  EL   SUPREMO 

loved  the  entire  Mayorga  household,  who  treated  him  as  a 
cousin,  and  felt  still  closer  to  old  Dona  Juana,  who  behaved 
towards  him  as  a  doting  grandmother.  No  one  could  help 
loving  Don  Bernardo.  Hawthorne  also  more  than  liked 
nearly  all  his  closer  acquaintances;  Parlett  in  spite  of  his 
faults;  Dr.  Bargas,  Don  Gregorio,  Don  Baltasar,  Senors 
Figueredo  and  Echagiie  and  all  four  Priors  in  spite  of  their 
foibles;  Generals  Yegros  and  Zevallos  in  spite  of  their 
ignorance,  and  tall  Don  Saturnino  Bedoya  and  patrician 
General  Cabanas  with  no  reservation  whatever. 

Dona  Juanita  Bianquet  he  found  even  a  more  delightful 
companion  on  land  than  on  shipboard.  He  spent  many 
evenings  at  her  tertulias,  enlivened  by  numerous  guests, 
frequent  impromptus,  occasional  puns,  general  singing  of 
choruses  and  universal  jollity.  Don  Manuel  was  a  genial 
host,  and  their  favourite  guests,  a  slender  young  buyer  of 
yerba  named  Barbeito,  and  a  stout,  middle-aged  tobacco 
dealer  named  Mendez,  were  good  fellows.  The  innocent, 
home-keeping  simplicity  of  their  enjoyment  of  life  touched 
Hawthorne  greatly. 

His  feeling  towards  Francia  puzzled  him;  his  mind  and 
heart  were  as  much  attracted  to  the  man  and  scholar  as 
his  humanity  and  conscience  were  revolted  from  the  skin 
flint  despot. 

Chiefly  and  most  of  all  he  regretted  leaving  Asuncion 
while  Cecilia  was  yet  in  prison.  But  he  had  at  least  alle 
viated  her  lot  and  a  single  false  move  or  the  right  move 
made  too  soon  or  hastily,  might  ruin  forever  his  chances  of 
aiding  in  her  escape  or  obtaining  her  open  release. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  YERBAUBS 
(1) 

'TPHE  moment  Hawthorne  had  announced  his  expedition, 
JL  the  entire  Mayorga  household  was  given  up  to  prepar 
ing  him  for  the  disagreeable  voyage  up  the  river,  the  ex 
hausting  journey  overland,  and  the  trying  stay  at  the  yer- 
bales.  So  expeditiously  was  everything  procured  that  but 


THE   YERBALES  375 

one  day  was  needed  to  fit  him  out  completely.  Before 
sunset  Tolomeo  announced  that  all  was  ready,  Carinelo  and 
Don  Vicente  went  over  the  outfit  and  confirmed  his  asser 
tion  and  there  was  nothing  more  to  delay  departure. 

Next  morning  he  saw  Cecilia  at  the  prison.  She  ex 
pressed,  with  her  habitual  air  of  inscrutable  sedateness, 
polite  regret  that  she  was  not  likely  to  see  him  again  for  a 
long  period.  The  urbane  perfunctoriness  of  her  demeanour, 
tone  and  words  was  anything  but  comforting  to  a  man  who 
felt  himself  utterly  in  love  with  her.  Her  appearance  of 
complete  health  and  placid  resignation,  lit  now  and  then  by 
a  flicker  of  girlish  archness  under  her  demure  serenity,  was, 
however,  solacing  to  remember. 

From  the  prison  Hawthorne  went  to  the  Government 
House  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  Dictator.  From  the  Palacio 
he  went  at  once  on  board  the  San  Jose,  through  a  small  mob 
of  friends  and  well-wishers  who  had  assembled  to  bid  him 
farewell.  Don  Gregorio,  of  course,  was  conspicuous  among 
them.  Tolomeo,  Lopez  and  the  soldiers  were  already  on 
board  in  addition  to  the  Carbonels  and  their  men.  The 
vessel  cast  off  at  once  and  had  a  fair  wind  till  Asuncion 
was  out  of  sight. 

Barely  until  Asuncion  was  out  of  sight.  From  there  on 
Hawthorne  had  need  of  all  his  philosophy  to  help  him  bear 
up  against  the  unpleasantness  and  discomforts  of  the  ex 
pedition.  For  eight  days  the  craft  made  way  against  the 
current,  tacking,  and  tacking  again,  from  hour  to  hour, 
going  aground  about  three  times  a  day.  Pedro  Carbonel 
spent  nearly  the  entire  daylight  quarrelling  with  the  va- 
queano,  upbraiding  him  for  his  slowness,  rating  him  for 
being  a  bad  pilot  or  blaming  him  for  calms  or  headwinds 
as  fiercely  as  for  barraduras ;  and  kept  it  up  at  night  so 
assiduously  that  it  seemed  to  Hawthorne  he  never  slept  at 
all.  The  soldiers  and  their  lieutenant,  without  any  distinc 
tion  of  equality,  played  cards  from  sunrise  till  their  noon 
meal,  and  from  the  end  of  their  siesta  until  sunset.  The 
peons  similarly  gambled  among  themselves,  squabbling  and 
disputing  interminably,  or  slept  huddled  together  in  the 
shade  of  the  bulwarks  or  even  in  the  full  fury  of  the  sun- 
glare.  The  tiny  cabin  of  the  brig  was  hot,  foul,  and  un 
bearably  smelly;  the  food  was  unappetising;  the  heat  ter 
rific.  But  altogether  these  horrors  were  nothing  to  the 


376  EL   SUPREMO 

mosquitoes.  It  was  with  heartfelt  relief  that,  not  long  after 
sunrise  of  the  ninth  day,  they  completed  their  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  of  navigation  and  Hawthorne  saw  Villa  Eeal 
come  into  sight. 

His  relief  vanished  once  he  was  ashore.  The  town  was 
a  sunbaked  rectangular  expanse  of  bare  earth,  diversified 
by  mud  holes  and  rubbish-heaps,  outlined  by  three  rows  of 
ramshackle  huts,  rotten  to  the  verge  of  collapse,  and  hide 
ously  filthy.  The  fourth  side  of  the  "market  square"  was 
occupied  by  the  parsonage,  a  two-room  cabin  scarcely  better 
than  the  Indians'  hovels;  three  "warehouses"  for  yerba, 
merely  larger  barn-like  huts,  and  the  church,  hardly 
bigger  than  the  warehouses  and  no  better  built.  There 
were  patches  of  manioc,  tobacco  and  maize  behind  the  huts. 
Beyond  them  waved  the  dense  primeval  forest,  a  tangle  of 
high  timber,  long  interlaced  and  intertwisted  vines,  close, 
thorny  underwood,  and  spiky  weeds. 

The  priest,  a  pock-marked  Guarani  who  spoke  little  Span 
ish  and  whose  jargon  of  that  and  church-Latin  was  harder 
to  understand  than  his  native  tongue,  gabbled  fearful 
rumours  that  some  of  his  Mbayas  had  crossed  to  hunt  on 
the  Gran  Chaco  and  had  seen  a  party  of  Guaycurus.  He 
had  made  a  novena  to  the  Virgin,  but  even  that  might  not 
prevent  the  terrible  savages  from  crossing  the  river  and 
massacring  all  his  flock.  He  evidently  had  more  dread  of 
the  nomads  than  faith  in  the  Madonna. 

Hawthorne  spent  two  days  at  Villa  Real,  the  most  un 
royal  place  he  had  ever  seen  and  the  least  like  a  villa. 
He  got  whatever  amusement  and  impression  of  novelty  he 
could  from  looking  on  and  listening  while  Pablo  Carbonel 
cajoled  the  Mbaya  alcalde  into  bringing  in  some  of  his 
herder  friends  from  the  stream-side  glades  in  the  forest, 
while  he  chaffered  with  them  for  bullocks,  of  which  he 
bought  some  hundred  and  twenty.  Later  he  watched  Pedro 
Carbonel  superintending  the  unloading  of  the  brig,  the 
counting  of  the  casks  of  rum  and  brandy,  the  unpacking, 
verifying  and  repacking  of  the  bales  of  straw-mats,  cotton- 
cloth,  ponchos,  caps,  handkerchiefs,  axes,  knives,  packs  of 
cards,  tobacco  and  sweetmeats;  even  one  of  yerba,  for  all 
must  have  their  beloved  mate  daily  on  their  way  to  the 
ycrbal.  What  little  diversion  he  derived  from  the  humours 
of  Mbaya  character  alleviated  but  slightly  the  depression 


THE   YERBALES  377 

of  his  spirits  from  the  enervating  heat,  the  loathsome  stench 
that  pervaded  the  village,  its  incredible  filth,  the  squalor  of 
its  dirty,  pauper  populace,  the  perpetual  intrusions  of 
snakes,  toads  and  lizards,  and  the  unremitting  attacks  of 
the  swarms  of  mosquitoes.  They  were  as  bad  ashore  as 
on  the  river  and  worse  at  night  than  by  day ;  and  at  night 
appeared  centipedes  on  the  ground  and  bats  in  the  air,  so 
that  Hawthorne,  though  his  hammock  was  slung  in  the 
priest's  bedroom,  the  least  uncomfortable  shelter  in  the 
hamlet,  slept  scarcely  at  all. 

Soon  after  sunrise  of  the  third  day  they  set  out,  in  ad 
vance  of  them  a  sort  of  pillar  of  black  cloud,  where  the 
myriads  of  bloodthirsty  flies  swirled  and  buzzed  above  the 
bellowing  bullocks,  guided,  urged  and  herded  by  eight 
peons,  red-capped,  white-shirted,  sashed  or  girdled  with 
pink,  blue  or  green,  their  legs  in  loose  white  cotton  trousers, 
their  bare  heels  kicking  at  the  ribs  of  their  roan  ponies. 
Fifty  more  peons,  open-shirted  and  jacketless  like  the  va- 
querosy  moimted  on  mules,  trailed  along  behind  the  herd. 
Among  them  were  the  pack  mules,  each  led  by  a  peon  on  a 
saddled  mule.  .The  other  peons  rode  bare-back.  Haw 
thorne,  Lopez  and  the  soldiers  brought  up  the  rear.  Some 
times  one  Carbonel  rode  with  them;  sometimes  both  rode 
to  the  front  of  the  caravan  and  sent  back  to  hasten  strag 
glers  the  capataz,  their  deputy  overseer,  who  mostly  kept 
ahead  to  choose  the  road  for  the  cattle,  bellowing  cease 
lessly  under  the  assaults  of  their  tormentors. 

The  peons,  bare-necked,  bare-armed  and  bare-legged, 
seemed  proof  against  insects.  Lopez,  the  soldiers,  Tolomeo 
and  Hawthorne,  like  the  capataz  and  the  Carbonels,  were 
not  only  booted,  but  wore  raw-hide  leggings  from  ankle  to 
hip,  an  armour  against  stings  and  thorns ;  gauntleted  sheep 
skin  gloves,  and  peep-holed  masks  of  sheepskin,  with  flaps 
covering  ears  and  neck.  Even  so  they  were  welted  and 
wealed  with  bites.  At  night  they  lit  great  fires  in  the 
glade  where  they  camped  and  huddled  in  their  smoke,  the 
mules'  noses  forward  close  about  them,  and  the  cattle 
crowding  on  the  mules  for  respite  from  their  buzzing  ene 
mies.  By  day  they  floundered  in  an'd  out  of  bogs,  skirted 
miles  of  swamp,  hacked  their  way  by  main  strength  through 
the  mat  of  interwoven  creepers,  burst  through  thorn-thick 
ets,  and  climbed  up  or  plunged  down  the  flanks  of  gullies. 


3?8  EL   SUPREMO 

Four  days  of  this  terrific  exertion  brought  them  out  into 
a  rolling  upland  country,  threaded  with  crystal  brooks, 
clean-soiled,  and  shaded  by  over-arching  trees,  separate  and 
stately.  Under  the  huge  green-hearts  and  iron- woods  wild 
oranges  were  plenty,  and  flowering  bushes  gay  with  blue 
and  scarlet  spikes  of  bloom.  Over  this  country  the  going 
was  easier  and  two  long  stages  ended  in  a  camp  where  Haw 
thorne  was  kept  awake  far  into  the  night  by  an  acrimonious 
and  futile  wrangle  between  the  two  Carbonels  as  to  whe 
ther  or  not  they  might  hope  to  come  upon  a  forest  of  yerbct 
trees  the  next  day.  Instead  of  cheerfully  waiting  for  re 
sults,  they  debated  this  question  with  such  violence  that 
Hawthorne  looked  to  see  either  stab  the  other,  and  caught 
Lopez  giving  covert  signals  to  the  soldiers  to  be  ready 
to  interfere  between  the  enraged  brothers. 

Nothing,  however,  came  of  the  squabble,  and  next  morn 
ing,  before  they  had  gone  a  league,  the  capataz  raised  a  yell 
which  the  vaqueros  took  up  and  the  peons  passed  along.  A 
yerbal  was  in  sight.  The  Carbonels  both  spurred  forward, 
Hawthorne  keeping  with  them  and  the  soldiers,  and  Lopez 
near  him.  Over  the  next  hill  they  came  into  view  of  a  broad 
valley,  well  wooded,  intersected  by  numberless  small  brooks, 
tributaries  of  the  stream  which  wound  southward  along  its 
middle,  to  the  considerable  river  of  which  a  reach  was 
visible  some  leagues  away  on  their  right. 

Half  a  league  down  the  valley  they  found  the  caravan 
halted  in  a  pleasant,  grassy  glade,  at  the  head  of  which 
welled  up  out  of  clean  gravel  between  the  two  ledges  of 
grey  rock  an  astonishingly  abundant  spring  of  clear  water. 
Full  six  feet  wide  and  a  foot  deep  it  gushed  from  under 
the  upper  ledge,  and  the  rivulet  it  fed  sprawled  cool  and 
gurgling  down  the  glade. 

' '  Ha ! ' '  Pedro  Carbonel  exclaimed,  ' '  the  saints  made  this 
place  for  our  comfort.  Here  we  camp;  here  we  establish 
ourselves  for  our  half  year.'* 

But  Pablo  stood  nosing  the  air  like  a  hound  on  a  lost 
scent. 

"I  do  not  like  this  place,"  he  objected.  " There  is  a 
camp  near  here.  Or  there  has  been  a  camp  near  here. 
Some  one  is  before  us  or  has  been  before  us. ' ' 

There  followed  an  altercation  between  the  two  Carbonels 
even  more  furious  and  violent  than  their  disputation  of  the 


THE   YERBALES  379 

night  before.  They  howled  and  jabbered  at  each  other  in 
their  uncastilian  Spanish,  varying  their  torrents  of  mutual 
abuse  with  cascades  of  vituperation  in  Guarani.  Into  this 
waste  of  breath  the  capataz  interjected  some  short  words. 
Their  tone  altered.  After  a  brief  discussion  word  was 
passed  and  the  peons  scattered,  the  vaqueros  restraining  the 
sumpter  mules  as  well  as  the  now  meek  herd. 

Within  an  hour  the  peons  returned  on  their  dripping 
mounts  and  reported  that  no  camp  of  mate  gatherers  was  in 
any  direction  discoverable,  certainly  none  near  enough  to 
trench  upon  their  operations. 

"Here  we  settle, "  said  Pedro  Carbonel. 

But  Pablo  still  sulked  and  repeated: 

1 '  Some  one  has  been  near  here,  not  Indians,  but  some  one 
like  ourselves." 

Sulkily  he  went  about  the  construction  of  a  settlement. 

Horses  and  mules  were  unsaddled  and  unloaded  and,  with 
the  cattle,  driven  off  to  browse  and  graze.  The  glade  was 
cleared  of  every  bush,  and  all  fell  to  furious  wood-cutting. 
Before  the  beginning  of  the  brief  twilight  they  had  com 
pleted  a  big  corral  for  the  cattle  and  a  smaller  for  the  mules 
and  horses.  Between  them  Hawthorne  had  watched  the 
erection  of  a  singular  structure.  Short  posts  of  entire  palm 
trunks  were  planted  solidly  in  deep  holes  so  that  they 
stood  full  twenty  feet  high  and  about  twenty  feet  apart  in 
each  row  and  between  the  two  rows.  Betwixt  each  pair 
stakes,  nearly  as  stout  as  the  posts,  were  driven  into  the 
ground.  Strong  beams,  extending  from  post  to  post  and 
supported  in  the  middle  by  the  stakes,  formed  a  frame 
work,  as  if  for  a  flat  roof.  Across  them  was  laid  a  rough 
raftering  of  long  poles.  On  these  were  spread  squares  of 
wicker-work  woven  of  willowish  branches  of  a  bush  grow 
ing  by  the  stream.  Over  these  were  laid  the  coarse  straw 
mats  under  bales  of  which  several  mules  had  panted  from 
Villa  Keal.  The  construction  was  full  twenty  feet  wide  and 
all  of  eighty  feet  long.  Two  neat  ladders  were  set  against 
this. 

When  sunset  came  a  ring  of  huge  fires  blazed  round  the 
corrals,  and  at  each  fire  went  on  more  or  less  roasting  of 
beef  from  a  bullock  slaughtered  not  an  hour  before.  After 
all  had  eaten  their  fill  and  smoked,  there  was  some  jabber 
ing  about  division  of  watches.  When  that  point  was  settled 


380  EL   SUPREMO 

two  peons  remained  on  the  ground  to  maintain  the  fires 
which  kept  the  squalling  jaguars  at  a  respectful  distance 
in  the  underbrush ;  the  rest,  peons,  vaqueros,  capataz,  Car- 
bonels,  soldiers,  Lopez,  Tolomeo  and  Hawthorne  climbed  the 
ladders.  At  that  height  above  the  ground  not  a  mosquito 
buzzed,  strange  to  say.  All  was  peace,  and  Hawthorne, 
stretching  himself  out  next  to  Lopez,  gazed  up  at  the  in 
credibly  clear  myriads  of  tropic  stars,  wondered  what  they 
all  would  have  done  had  it  poured  rain,  and  drowsed  luxuri 
ously  into  the  only  night's  sleep  he  had  had  since  leaving 
Asuncion. 

"Waked  at  the  first  streaks  of  light  by  the  screaming  of 
the  parrots  and  the  scarcely  less  shrill  chatterings  and 
howlings  of  the  monkeys,  Hawthorne  watched  the  colony 
spring,  even  before  sunrise,  into  an  almost  frenzied  activity, 
which  lasted  through  the  appalling  heat  of  the  day  with 
scarcely  any  interruption  until  sunset. 

Taking  the  corrals  and  sleeping-platform  as  one  of  the 
shorter  sides,  Pablo  Carbonel  marked  out  a  long  rectangle 
down  the  glade.  This  was  cleared  of  every  remaining  ves 
tige  of  vegetation.  Down  the  left  hand  side  of  it,  starting 
from  near  the  corral  for  the  horses  and  mules,  the  peons 
built  a  long  line  of  huts.  First  they  pounded  hard  a  square 
of  ground  ten,  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  on  each  side.  This 
pounding  was  done  with  huge  mauls  of  lapacho  wood, 
weighing  twenty,  thirty,  even  forty  pounds  apiece.  These 
the  peons  wielded  with  ease,  swinging  them  up  high  over 
their  heads  and  bringing  them  down  with  astounding  force. 
They  thumped  on  the  earth  alternately  in  a  rhythm  like 
that  of  blacksmith's  hammers,  only  much  slower.  Even  in 
the  ^terrible  midday  heat  they  kept  up  this  fury  of  effort 
untiring,  the  sweat  pouring  off  them  in  rivers.  When  each 
square  was  compacted  to  Pablo  Carbonel's  liking  they  set 
up  posts  at  the  corners  of  this  earth  floor.  To  these  they 
fastened  a  rough  framework  of  poles,  wattled  the  sides,  and 
covered  the  roof  with  a  closely  laid  thatch  of  broad  palm 
or  banana  leaves.  A  shallow  trench  round  the  three  higher 
sides  of  the  structure,  to  divert  ground-water  in  rainstorms, 
completed  each  dwelling. 

^  Continuing  the  line  made  by  the  huts  to  the  end  of  that 
side  of  the  open  space  and  along  the  entire  opposite  side, 
they  next  constructed  what  they  called  tatacuas  and  bar- 


THE   YERBALES  381 

lacuds,  in  pairs,  one  alternating  with  the  other  all  the  way, 
twenty-five  sets  altogether,  one  set  for  each  pair  of  peons. 

A  tatacud  was  a  six-foot  square  of  earth,  beaten  hard, 
like  the  hut-floors,  with  at  each  corner  deeply  driven  into 
the  ground  a  stout  stake  some  four  feet  high  and  crotched 
or  forked  at  its  top,  the  four  supporting  a  rough  scaffold 
of  peeled  poles. 

A  barlacud  was  a  space  of  similarly  compacted  earth 
about  fifteen  feet  in  breadth  and  thirty  in  length.  Posts 
and  stakes  supported  beams  on  the  long  sides,  and  smaller 
beams  pegged  to  these  held  up  a  sort  of  ridge-pole  and 
close-set  rafter-like  cross-bars,  the  whole  forming  a  sort 
of  broad,  low  arch,  like  a  rustic  grape-arbour  covered  with 
wattle-work ;  on  the  outside  of  which,  about  half  way  up  its 
curve,  planks  were  set  on  bracket-like  projections,  making 
a  kind  of  gang- way  from  end  to  end. 

At  the  entrance  of  each  space  between  a  tatacud  and  a 
'barbacud  was  heaped  a  great  pile  of  cut  wood  for  fuel. 

The  fourth  side  of  the  plaza,  the  short  end  opposite  the 
sleeping-platform  and  corrals,  was  filled  by  a  continuous 
warehouse  shed,  a  mere  long,  low  roof  of  rough  rafters, 
thatched  with  palm-leaves  over  banana-leaves,  the  store 
house  for  the  merchandise  in  which  their  labours  were  to 
result. 

After  three  days  of  incessant  labour  the  settlement  was 
in  order.  The  fourth  day  was  Sunday,  which  was  passed 
in  complete  idleness.  Most  of  the  peons  slept  more  than 
half  the  day.  When  awake  they  lolled  about,  smoking, 
drinking  mate,  singing  or  playing  on  guitars.  What  little 
they  ate  was  jerked  beef ;  slaughtering  a  bullock  appeared 
to  be  regarded  as  too  laborious  to  be  worth  the  trouble. 

On  Monday  the  six  months '  yerba  gathering  began.  Haw 
thorne  went  out  with  a  brace  of  peons  named  Jose  and 
Lazaro  Nunez,  brothers  like  the  Carbonels,  but  unlike  as 
possible  to  those  irascible  Catalans.  Being  mostly  Guarani 
with  a  dash  of  Andalusian  ancestry,  they  were  plump,  jolly 
and  good-natured;  their  dirty  scarlet  caps  tilted  rakishly 
over  one  ear,  their  water-horns  slung  jauntily,  their  bright 
new  hatchets  stuck  in  their  belts,  their  ponchos  dangling 
behind  them.  Through  thickets  of  thorny  underwood, 
through  mats  of  creepers,  over  boulders  and  heaps  of  jagged 
rocks,  around  little  bog-holes,  up  and  down  the  flanks  of 


382  EL   SUPREMO 

gullies  they  trudged,  climbed,  crawled  or  scrambled.  Within 
a  half  hour  they  came  to  a  considerable  copse  of  yerba- 
ilexes,  varying  in  size  and  shape  from  bushy  shrubberies 
like  pussy  willows  or  alders  to  big  handsome  trees  like  sugar 
maples  in  their  full  young  prime. 

Jose  and  Lazaro  set  to  chopping  the  smallest  shrubs  and 
piling  up  the  cuttings  in  a  great  heap  of  glossy  green. 
Within  two  hours  the  heap  had  grown  to  a  stack  of  aston 
ishing  size.  Then  they  argued  in  clucking,  twanging  Gua- 
rani  about  the  direction  of  the  camp,  gesticulating  violently, 
but  smiling  all  the  while.  Then  each  filled  his  poncho  with 
the  cut  boughs,  heaved  it  up  on  his  shoulders  and  staggered 
off,  bent  double  under  a  loose,  wobbling  load,  six  or  seven 
feet  in  every  dimension.  Beneath  this  unwieldy  burden 
they  tore  their  way  back  to  camp,  never  losing  their  spirits 
nor  their  footing,  their  bare  feet  never  slipping,  their  bare 
legs  impervious  to  thorns,  their  brown  skins  shiny  with 
sweat. 

By  their  tatacud  they  dumped  their  leafy  bundles,  back 
they  jog-trotted  for  more,  back  again  they  trudged,  and  so 
on  until  their  entire  crop  was  piled  in  camp.  So  exactly 
had  they  calculated  their  cut,  that  they  came  in  with  their 
last  load  just  at  sunset.  All  day  they  had  run,  hewn, 
climbed  and  plodded,  bathed  in  floods  of  sweat,  exposed  to 
the  merciless  sun,  steamed  in  the  breezeless  humidity  of  the 
undergrowths,  always  in  a  cloud  of  gnats,  flies  and  mos 
quitoes  ;  their  only  solace  a  cigar  or  two,  swallowing  nothing 
save  now  and  then  a  draft  of  luke-warm  water  and  at  noon 
a  melon  apiece !  yet  they  were  merry  and  lively. 

So,  apparently,  were  the  other  forty-eight  peons.  They 
trooped  into  camp  from  their  last  haul,  not  dragging  ex 
hausted  limbs,  but  walking  springily.  Around  the  cooking 
fires  they  joked  and  chatted,  they  ate  their  fill,  to  an  in 
credible  number  of  pounds,  of  fresh-killed  beef  and  sun- 
dried  charque,  and  as  dusk  turned  to  dark  they  climbed 
easily  the  ladders  to  the  sleeping  stage. 

Tuesday  was  a  repetition  of  Monday.  On  Wednesday 
each  tatacud  was  ablaze  with  a  low  fire  of  chunky  logs,  over 
which  the  peons  scorched  the  cut  boughs.  As  soon  as  the 
leaves  curled  up  and  began  to  dry  they  lifted  the  boughs 
from  the  rough  lattice  over  the  tatacud  and  beat  the  leaves 
off  into  an  ample  hide  net  spread  on  the  ground.  When 


THE    YERBALES  383 

enough  were  heaped  on  the  net  it  was  gathered  up  by  its 
corners  and  the  load  of  leaves  carried  up  the  barbacud  and 
spread  over  its  arched  top  on  the  wicker  wattles.  When 
the  whole  arch  was  hidden  under  the  crispy  leaves  a  fire  was 
built  on  the  earth  floor,  the  heat  of  which  completely  dried 
the  yerba  leaves.  While  the  drying  was  going  on  one  peon 
was  posted  on  each  of  the  outer  plank-gangways,  up  and 
down  which  he  patrolled  with  a  long  wand,  beating  out  any 
sparks  of  fire  which  appeared  among  the  curing  leaves. 
After  the  yerba  was  thoroughly  cured  the  fire  was  drawn, 
the  earth  floor  swept  clear  of  ashes  and  pounded  again  all 
over  with  the  enormous  mallets.  Then  the  leaves  and  twigs 
were  shaken  down  from  the  barbacud's  lattice-roof,  beaten 
into  small  pieces  with  flail-like  sticks,  and  ground  in  a 
clumsy  quebracho-wood  hand-mill.  The  powder  was  packed 
into  tercios.  These  were  made  by  taking  a  rectangle  of 
wet,  fresh  rawhide,  doubling  it,  and  hastily  sewing  up  the 
two  sides,  forming  a  flat  bag  like  a  pillow-case.  In  this  the 
yerba  was  packed  tight  with  a  sort  of  huge  wooden 
pestle.  When  no  more  could  be  forced  in,  a  flap  of  damp 
hide  was  drawn  over  the  top  and  laced  all  around.  The 
finished  tercios  were  put  in  the  sun,  under  whose  heat  they 
shrank,  as  the  wet  leather  dried,  to  a  rock-like  hardness  and 
heaviness.  These  blocks  of  salable  yerba,  about  two  hun 
dred  pounds  each  or  over,  were  duly  weighed  at  the  ware 
house  door  by  the  capataz,  and  each  couple  of  peons  cred 
ited  with  their  product,  reckoned  by  arrobas  of  about 
twenty-five  pounds  each. 

Hawthorne  found  that  two  toiling  peons  gathered  about 
two  tercios  each  day. 

By  sunset  on  Thursday  all  the  product  of  two  days  of 
gathering,  one  of  drying,  and  one  of  pounding,  grinding 
and  packing,  was  under  roof  in  the  warehouses. 

The  next  two  days  it  rained  in  torrents  and  Hawthorne 
discovered  the  utility  of  the  huts,  which  up  to  that  time 
had  been  occupied  only  on  Sunday. 

On  the  second  Monday  morning,  as  a  fair  Sunday  had 
nearly  dried  the  soaked  forest,  the  whole  process  began 
over  again. 

This  time  Hawthorne  accompanied  another  couple  of 
peons;  ill-conditioned  rascals,  with  high -sounding  names, 
doubtless  false  or  falsely  assumed  by  scoundrelly  ancestors. 


384 


EL   SUPREMO 


At  any  rate  they  answered  to  the  impressive  names  of  Luis 
Bazan  and  Juan  Osorio.  Unlike  their  names  as  possible 
they  were,  both  complaining  and  whining,  as  nearly  bad- 
tempered  as  thoughtless,  improvident  yerbateros  could  be. 
Hawthorne  found  them  by  no  means  as  good  company  as 
the  cheerful  Nunez  twins,  but  studied  them  attentively  and 
established  a  sort  of  intimacy  with  them.  They  confided  in 
him  their  troubles  and  disappointments  with  endless  itera 
tion. 

After  following  the  process  twice  over  he  lost  interest  in 
its  details,  felt  he  had  learned  all  that  could  be  learned  of 
yerl> a- gathering,  and  began  to  realise  how  tired  he  was  of 
a  diet  of  too-recently  killed  beef,  too-aged  ckarque  and 
flavorless  melons,  tempered  only  by  coarse  Paraguayan 
cigars. 

Accordingly,  soon  after  dawn  of  the  second  Friday,  he 
looked  over  his  fowling-piece,  intent  upon  game.  He  would 
not  have  been  above  a  bag  of  a  monkey  or  two,  if  nothing 
better  offered,  would  have  shot  parrots  with  eagerness ;  but 
he  really  hoped  for  duck,  even  for  royal  duck,  if  he  could 
find  a  pond.  The  big  bustards,  rather  like  wild  turkeys, 
which  lurked  in  the  underbrush,  would  have  been  much  to 
his  taste.  He  even  might  have  the  luck  to  shoot  a  water- 
hog  or  a  wild  boar. 

Hero  had  passively  endured  the  discomforts  of  the  voyage 
and  journey,  faithful  and  resigned,  but  never  for  one  in 
stant  a  happy  dog.  At  sight  of  the  fowling-piece  his  dull 
eyes  brightened,  his  listless  inertia  vanished;  he  frisked 
about  vivaciously,  barked  joyously,  and  was  all  that  a 
Malvinas  pointer  should  be. 

Lopez  had  spent  his  time  in  camp  as  on  the  river  in 
ceaseless  gambling  with  his  ruffians,  and  had  shown  not  the 
slightest  sign  of  interest  in  anything  except  the  cards.  But 
the  moment  Hawthorne  appeared,  gun  in  hand  and  with 
Hero  gambolling  about  him,  the  lieutenant  was  alert,  every 
lazy  inch  of  him  awake.  Instantly  his  men  were  no  longer 
boon  companions  on  a  footing  of  equality,  but  docile  pri 
vates,  ready  to  jump  at  any  order,  while  he  was  completely 
the  responsible  officer,  gravely  aware  of  his  duty. 

He  was  polite  to  the  last  requirement  of  Castilian  stand 
ards,  but  he  made  it  clear  to  Hawthorne  that  he  was  re 
sponsible  for  his  safety  and  that  he  would  not  allow  him  to 


THE   YERBALES  385 

plunge  alone  into  the  forests.  Going  out  with  two  peons, 
he  explained,  was  perfectly  safe,  as  they  were  adepts  at 
woodcraft  and  cautious  of  their  own  safety.  Game,  on  the 
other  hand,  frequented  just  those  stream-sides  along  which 
yerba  trees  never  grew  and  which  yerbateros  avoided  not 
only  for  that  reason,  but  as  dangerous. 

"Don  Benigno,"  Hawthorne  objected,  "El  Supremo  said 
nothing  to  me  to  inform  that  I  was  to  be  practically  your 
prisoner. ' ' 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  Lopez  replied,  "you  are  no 
body's  prisoner,  unless  you  are  El  Supremo's.  But  reflect 
that  El  Supremo  is  chary  of  information,  and  be  good 
enough  to  take  my  word  for  it  that  he  told  me  that  if  you 
did  not  return  safe  and  sound  I  should  most  assuredly  be 
shot,  as  I  shall  be  if  any  harm  comes  to  you." 

Upon  Hawthorne  asking  what  he  required  Lopez  declared 
that  it  would  be  sufficient  if  he  followed  a  hundred  yards  or 
so  behind  with  two  soldiers.  He  promised  to  do  nothing  to 
scare  off  game. 

Hawthorne  took  a  careful  observation  of  the  sun,  noted 
the  time  of  the  day  on  his  watch,  and  set  off  in  a  direction, 
taken  by  none  of  the  yerbateros,  guiding  himself  by  com 
pass  only.  He  made  a  wide  circuit,  proposing  to  return  to 
the  camp  far  from  the  track  by  which  he  had  set  out. 

Tolomeo  carried  his  gun,  Hero  explored  the  thickets  and 
all  three  revelled  in  a  delightful  day.  Some  birds  like  phea 
sants  were  fairly  abundant  and  before  noon  Hawthorne  was 
glad  of  his  guard,  as  not  only  Tolomeo  but  both  soldiers 
were  laden  down  with  them;  even  after  the  five  humans 
and  their  dog  had  eaten  to  repletion  of  the  liberal  selection 
which  Tolomeo  had  plucked,  cleaned  and  roasted  for  their 
midday  meal. 

A  brief  siesta  succeeded  their  dinner.  Then  Hawthorne 
followed  a  water-course  which  flowed  in  a  curve  bowed  to 
the  eastward  and  promised  to  bend  north-westward  and 
conduct  them  campwards  as  he  had  intended. 

About  a  league  from  where  they  had  rested  Hero  began 
to  behave  most  peculiarly  and  Hawthorne  conjectured  he 
had  roused  a  wild  boar.  The  undergrowth  was  too  dense  to 
be  seen  through,  and  he  peered  into  it  eagerly.  He  saw 
something  move  by  the  water-side  and  fired  low. 

There  was  a  yell  of  human  agony. 


386  EL   SUPREMO 

Hawthorne  started  back,  fearing  wild  Indians. 

When  Lopez  and  the  soldiers  came  up  they  reconnoitred 
cautiously. 

They  came  upon  a  youngish  man,  plainly  Guarani,  who 
had  fainted,  but  was  more  hurt  than  injured,  for  Haw 
thorne's  bird-shot  had  merely  peppered  both  his  legs  from 
ankle  to  mid-thigh,  and  the  effort  to  run,  combined  with  the 
pain,  had  been  too  much  for  him. 

Hawthorne,  with  amazement,  heard  Lopez  give  the  order 
in  Guarani: 

"Tie  him  up,"  and  saw  the  wounded  man  pinioned. 

"Why  bind  him?"  he  queried. 

1 '  Why, ' '  Lopez  exulted.  '  *  He 's  a  prize !  A  great  prize ! 
Senor  Don  Guillermo,  you  have  the  devil's  luck,  or  the 
saints'  protection.  This  is  Galicien  Abendano!" 


(2) 

At  no  great  distance  down  the  stream  they  came  upon  the 
prisoner's  camp  and  ascertained  that  he  had  been  hiding 
entirely  alone,  subsisting  on  fish  and  what  little  game  he 
could  snare  or  kill  with  his  arrows.  Convoying  him  to  the 
yerbateros'  quarters  was  a  matter  of  some  difficulty,  as  he 
could  not  walk,  and  could  scarcely  bear  to  be  moved. 

"You  hobbled  him  thoroughly,"  the  Lieutenant  re 
marked.  "No  danger  of  his  running  away  yet  awhile." 

When  he  was  in  a  hut  and  safely  under  guard  Lopez 
was  much  relieved.  His  attention  was  then  pretty  well 
occupied  with  the  Carbonels.  Pablo,  his  intuition  confirmed 
by  the  discovery  of  Abendano 's  camp,  so  vaunted  himself 
over  his  brother,  that  Pedro  became  a  mere  lunatic  from 
chagrin  and  could  with  difficulty  be  restrained  from  knifing 
Ms  tormentor.  Hawthorne  had  never  beheld  such  animal 
vindictiveness  in  any  human  being. 

Lopez,  his  prisoner  safe,  devoted  himself  to  the  problem 
of  transportation  to  Asuncion. 

'There  never  was  water  in  Paraguay,"  he  said,  ''with 
out  Payagua  Indians  not  far  off." 

He  rode  over  to  the  nearest  reach  of  the  Ypane-Guazu 
and  almost  at  once  came  upon  a  camp  of  Payaguas.  Pad 
dled  by  these  dexterous  watermen,  Hawthorne,  Tolomeo, 


PRINCE   BELTRAN  387 

Lopez,  the  prisoner  and  the  soldiers  sped  rapidly  down  the 
Ypane-Guazu  to  its  outfall  into  the  Rio  Paraguay  and  down 
the  great  river  to  the  capital. 

The  morning  after  their  arrival  Bernardino  Zapidas  and 
the  two  brothers  Abendano  were  shot  before  the  sun  was 
high. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

PRINCE  BELTRAN 
(1) 

HAWTHORNE 'S  first  dinner  in  Asuncion  after  his  ex 
pedition  was  a  very  fine  dinner,  as  the  Mayorgas  were 
entertaining  Don  Fray  Evaristo  de  Panes,  Bishop  of  Asun 
cion,  newly  returned  from  a  peregrination  of  much  of  his 
diocese.  Chief  of  the  guests  assembled  in  his  honour  were 
Padre  Herniengildo  and  Don  Bernardo.  The  august  Prior, 
courtly  Intendente  and  venerable  prelate  made  a  notable 
trio.  Fray  Evaristo  was  much  the  same  sort  of  man  as 
Don  Bernardo,  had  been  much  the  same  sort  of  man.  For 
the  infirmities  impending  over  the  ex-governor  were  al 
ready  overwhelming  the  Bishop,  who  nodded  automatically 
as  he  talked,  whose  lower  lip  sagged  ever  so  little,  and 
showed  a  trace  of  moisture  where  it  drooped,  whose  knees 
barely  served  him. 

He  beamed  on  Hawthorne  and  said: 

"My  son,  I  have  heard  much  praise  of  you,  and  not  a 
little  envy,  for  they  speak  of  you  as  peculiarly  gifted  and 
astonishingly  favoured  by  luck.  They  should  say  by  Provi 
dence,  for  all  happenings  on  this  earth  are  determined  not 
by  haphazard  chance,  but  by  the  merciful  and  beneficent 
ministrations  of  Divine  Providence,  which  certainly  favours 
you  since  you  have  been  guided  to  Asuncion.  I  am  told 
that  your  native  land  is  a  country  of  heretics  and  that  you 
are  yourself  such.  Be  it  known  to  you  that  at  Asuncion, 
peculiarly  among  all  places  on  earth,  the  grace  of  God  is 
manifested  in  a  very  special  manner.  It  may  be  that  your 
coming  here  is  due  to  the  mysterious  and  inscrutable  work 
ings  of  Divine  Providence,  that  you  have  been  shepherded 
hither  as  a  little  child  is  led  home  out  of  the  darkness  of 


388  EL   SUPREMO 

night  by  his  father's  hand.  It  may  be  that  by  the  opera 
tion  of  Divine  benevolence  hallowing  the  spiritual  atmos 
phere  of  this  favoured  city,  you  may  be  weaned  from  your 
errors  and  brought  into  the  fold  of  the  lambs  of  God.  Or, 
peradventure,  according  to  the  unfathomable  dispensations 
of  heaven,  it  may  be  the  Divine  will  that  you  abide  as  you 
are,  in  which  case  be  sure  that,  in  some  manner  incompre 
hensible  to  us,  all  will  indubitably  be  proceeding  for  the 
greater  honour  and  glory  of  our  Heavenly  Father.7' 


(2) 

That  evening  Hawthorne  sat  with  Francia  in  the  Palacio 
garden  after  their  supper. 

"To  begin  with,"  he  said,  " there  is  no  place  between 
Asuncion  and  the  Ypane-Guazu  at  all  suitable  for  a  penal 
settlement. ' ' 

"Definite  and  to  the  point,"  said  Francia.  "What 
next?" 

"As  to  the  quarries,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "Empe- 
drado  has  great  quantities  of  excellent  stone  for  building 
or  paving.  I  believe  the  early  Intendentes  pitched  on  the 
best  spot  on  all  the  river  for  quarrying.  The  ledges  are 
close  to  the  stream,  the  main  current  sweeps  down  that  side, 
the  water  is  deep  enough  for  vessels  to  tie  up  directly  to 
the  bank.  I  do  not  believe  you  can  improve  on  it." 

"Good  again,"  Francia  ejaculated,  taking  a  big  pinch 
of  snuff.  "And  what  have  you  to  say  about  yerba?" 

1  ( In  the  first  place, ' '  Hawthorne  replied, ' '  I  perceive  that 
mate  collected  in  the  wild  yerbcdes  can  never  be  packed 
otherwise  than  in  raw-hide  tercios.  My  notion  that  canvas 
would  be  better  was  based  entirely  upon  the  deterioration 
of  the  flavour  in  the  customary  packages.  But  raw-hide 
has  overwhelming  advantages  compared  with  any  other 
covering.  It  is  the  cheapest  by  far,  it  is  water-tight,  and 
soaking  would  impair  the  flavour  of  yerba,  far  more  than 
the  taste  raw-hide  imparts  to  it.  Most  of  all,  in  canvas 
or  what  not,  yerba  could  never  be  packed  as  tight  as  it  is 
by  the  powerful  contraction  of  the  raw-hide  in  drying.  No 
other  material  possesses  that  invaluable  quality. ' ' 

' '  Yes, ' '  Francia  reflected,  ' '  when  you  spoke  of  it  I  judged 


PRINCE   BELTRAN  389 

that,  except  for  some  possible,  but  wholly  fanciful  future 
trade  in  caa  cuys,  you  might  as  well  talk  of  packing  yerba 
in  embroidered  silk  as  in  canvas  at  the  price  it  commands 
here." 

"Otherwise,"  Hawthorne  resumed,  "I  find  nothing  ab 
surd  in  my  preconceptions.  Everything  else  I  imagined 
seems  practicable." 

"Excellent!"  Francia  exclaimed,  snuffing  again.  "And 
what  do  you  propose  next  ? ' ' 

"I  still  hold  to  the  idea  of  ?/er&a-plantations,"  Haw 
thorne  answered,  ' l  and  I  think  I  have  a  pretty  good  knowl 
edge  of  the  sort  of  country  and  kind  of  soil  in  which  yerba, 
thrives.  It  seems  to  me  the  favourable  conditions  are  very 
much  the  same  as  for  tobacco.  I  make  a  conjecture  that 
2/er&a-plantations  might  be  established  on  land  which  has 
been  growing  tobacco  and  begun  to  fall  off  in  yield  of  that 
crop.  It  is  possible  that  the  time  of  year  for  working  in 
2/er&&-plantations  might  turn  out  to  be  just  when  there  is 
practically  nothing  to  do  to  tobacco  fields,  might  fall  in 
between  tobacco  gathering  and  planting.  So  there  is  a 
possibility  that  the  very  force  of  workmen  required  for  a 
tobacco  plantation  might  keep  up  a  i/er&a-plantation  also 
without  having  too  much  labour  put  on  them. ' ' 

Francia  cackled  a  dry  laugh  and  rubbed  his  hands  to 
gether. 

"There  may  be  nothing  in  all  this,"  he  said,  "but  it  is 
a  pleasure  to  hear  you  talk  economy  and  imply  profits. 
Even  if  you  never  mention  proceeds,  everything  you  say 
conjures  up  the  picture  of  handsome  net  revenues  over  and 
above  all  expenses." 

"In  the  hope  of  making  that  picture  a  reality,"  Haw 
thorne  resumed,  "I  want  a  passport  to  travel  about  exam 
ining  sites  and  soils. ' ' 

"You  shall  have  it,"  Francia  agreed. 

* '  And  I  have  another  idea, ' '  Hawthorne  went  on.  ' c  The 
curing  of  yerba  is  a  slow,  clumsy  and  haphazard  process  by 
the  method  in  vogue.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  a  broad, 
shallow,  cast-iron  pan,  say  a  foot  deep,  ten  feet  wide  and 
fifteen  feet  long,  supported  on  two  walls  of  brick-work  or 
firestone  of  any  sort,  so  that  its  top  would  be  about  three 
feet  from  the  earth,  leaving  plenty  of  room  for  drafts  and 
fuel  underneath  and  low  enough  for  all  filling,  stirring  and 


390  EL   SUPREMO 

emptying  to  be  done  by  men  standing  on  the  ground,  would 
take  the  place  of  both  tatacud  and  i)arl>acu6,  and  would  be 
superior  to  either." 

* '  Pans  three  yards  by  five ! ' '  Franeia  cried.  *  *  How  could 
you  get  them  to  the  yerbales?" 

"I  was  thinking,"  Hawthorne  explained,  "of  working 
t/er&a-plantations  when  established." 

"I  see!"  Franeia  commented.  "But  your  imagination 
runs  away  with  you.  Cast-iron  pans  might  be  perfection, 
or  solid  gold  pans.  But  one  is  as  likely  as  the  other.  How 
obtain  them?" 

"I  might  make  them,"  said  Hawthorne  simply. 

"You  talk  as  if  iron-casting  were  easy,"  Franeia  ob 
jected. 

"It  depends  on  what  one  is  casting,"  Hawthorne  ex 
plained.  "Pans  for  toasting  yerba  leaves  would  be  thin 
and  would  be  subjected  to  not  much  strain.  Such  articles 
can  be  cast  readily  as  no  uniformity  of  material  or  strength 
is  required." 

"I  see!"  Franeia  reflected  meditatively. 

"In  conclusion,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "I  propose  to 
look  for  a  locality  where  tobacco  is  grown,  where  land  suit 
able  for  yerba  is  unused,  where  fuel  is  abundant,  and  where 
iron-ore  is  in  sight.  There  we  might  consider  beginning 
operations. ' ' 

"Let  us  drink  each  other's  health  and  to  the  success  of 
your  project,"  said  Franeia,  "and  then  let  us  have  a  game 
of  chess." 

Over  the  chess  board  he  remarked : 

"Instead  of  having  no  games  while  you  were  away  I 
have  had  many.  Don  Beltran  plays  as  good  a  game  as  you. 
Not  so  solid  a  defense,  but  more  vigour  and  unexpectedness 
in  his  attack.  And  a  sort  of  personal  vivacity  that  makes 
one  enjoy  even  losing." 

"You  found  him  agreeable?"  Hawthorne  smiled. 

"Agreeableness  is  but  one  of  his  qualities,"  the  Dictator 
answered.  "He  is  a  man.  I  find  one  Paraguayan  at  last 
whom  I  can  meet  and  treat  as  an  equal.  On  which  in  act, 
manner,  word  and  tone  he  has  never  presumed.  He  has 
tact,  brains  and  sense.  Likewise  experience.  He  is  com 
petent.''  And  he  added:  "Can  you  ride  with  me  to 
morrow  afternoon  ? ' ' 


PRINCE    BELTRAN  391 

' '  Certainly, ' '  Hawthorne  accepted. 

"In  that  case/'  Francia  promised,  "I  shall  show  you  a 
real  review.  You  shall  see  something  worth  while! 

"Which  reminds  me/'  he  continued,  "that  I  have  some 
thing  else  to  show  you." 

He  called  Bopi,  who  went  off  and  returned  with  a  bolt  of 
cotton  cloth. 

"Not  bad  homespun,  eh?"  Francia  queried,  running 
through  his  hands  the  four  or  five  yards  he  had  unrolled. 
"This  is  prison  made  and  equal  to  the  best  German,  far 
better  than  the  slazy  English  weaves." 


(3) 

Hawthorne's  first  visit  to  the  prison  after  his  return  from 
the  yerbales  was  to  him  a  very  momentous  occasion.  Cecilia 
seemed  really  glad  to  see  him.  Her  greeting  was  cordial, 
as  between  old  friends,  and  her  glance  was  personal,  not 
the  stony  gaze  with  which  she  had  stared  past  and  beyond 
him  during  all  their  earlier  interviews. 

Always  before  he  had  stood  at  the  entrance  of  her  hut. 
This  time  he  found  there,  besides  her  hide  cot  and  spinning 
wheel,  a  low  stool  set  by  the  door.  After  she  had  risen  to 
greet  him  and  reseated  herself  upon  the  cot,  she  indicated 
the  stool  by  gesture  and  said: 

"Sit  down,  Senor  Don  Guillermo." 

This  unexpected  affability  quite  overwhelmed  him  and 
he  was  completely  tongue-tied. 

With  astonishing  results. 

Always  before  he  had  had  to  do  nearly  all  the  talking. 
Cecilia's  replies  had  been  brief  and  the  reverse  of  en 
couraging.  She  had  never  started  a  topic  or  volunteered  a 
statement. 

Now  she  remarked,  quite  as  a  matter  of  course  :^ 

"I  hear  with  regret  that  you  are  no  longer  in  favour 
with  the  Dictator." 

' '  News  to  me ! "  Hawthorne  replied,  startled.    ' '  I  supped 
with  him  last  night.    He  seemed  well  pleased  with  my  report 
of  my  expedition.     We   played  chess  and   chatted   until 
eleven  o'clock,  and  I  am  to  ride  with  him  to  the  parade 
ground  this  afternoon." 


392  EL   SUPREMO 

Cecilia  gazed  full  in  his  eyes,  incredulously. 

"I  have  been  hearing  daily,  almost  ever  since  your  de 
parture,  ' '  she  said,  *  *  and  increasingly  of  late,  that  you  have 
been  completely  supplanted  in  his  regard  by  a  Senor  Ja- 
ray." 

"Beltran!"  Hawthorne  exclaimed.  "He  is  one  of  the 
best  friends  I  have  on  earth.  We  met  in  Buenos  Aires  and 
came  up  the  river  on  the  same  ship.  I  did  everything  I 
could  to  attract  the  Dictator's  attention  to  him,  and  re 
gretted  that  I  succeeded  so  badly.  I  am  rejoiced  that  they 
have  become  so  well  acquainted  in  my  absence.  I  have 
barely  seen  Beltran  since  I  returned,  and  had  no  chance  to 
talk  with  him.  But  I  am  sure  there  is  no  thought  of  '  sup 
planting  '  in  his  head  or  mine.  He  and  I  are  warm  friends. 
I  get  on  as  well  as  ever  with  the  Dictator,  and  the  better 
he  likes  Beltran  the  better  I  am  pleased.  There  is  no  jeal 
ousy  between  us. ' ' 

Cecilia  stared  at  him  severely. 

"Either,"  she  said,  "you  mask  your  chagrin  very  suc 
cessfully,  and  are  gifted  with  a  really  terrifying  faculty 
for  dissimulation,  or  you  are  an  appallingly  unselfish  and 
generous  young  man." 

"I  do  not  believe  I  am  a  bit  like  any  of  that."  Haw 
thorne  smiled. 

Cecilia  pouted  at  him. 

1 1  You  are  very  stupid ! "  she  told  him.  ' '  I  hoped  you  had 
lost  favour,  for  I  want  to  be  friendly  with  you,  and  I  can 
be  friendly  with  no  henchman  of  the  tyrant. ' ' 

And  she  would  not  talk  any  more. 

^  But  she  had  put  in  her  hair  some  of  the  bright  violet 
timbo  and  leibo  flowers  he  had  brought  her,  and  the  rest 
in  her  belt.  They  did  not  become  her,  he  thought,  as  well 
as  others  of  more  brilliant  hues  which  he  had  given  her  be 
fore  ;  but  they  became  her,  and  he  carried  the  picture  she 
made  imprinted  on  his  memory. 

^  The  talk  she  had  heard  of  Beltran 's  intimacy  with  Fran- 
cia  had  even  penetrated  the  prison. 

It  was  the  one  topic  of  conversation  all  over  Asuncion. 
Hawthorne  had  been  greeted  with  it  at  Mayorga's  imme 
diately  after  he  had  landed,  and  it  had  met  him  at  every 
turn. 

From  the  prison  he  went  to  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop,  where 


PRINCE   BELTRAN  393 

he  found  the  usual  group  of  cronies  vehemently  airing 
their  views  on  the  same  subject. 

"He  is  inscrutable  to  me,"  Don  Jerman  said.  "Fran 
cisco  and  Angel  seemed  a  pair  of  as  competent  young  offi 
cers  as  a  general  could  wish  for.  He  dismissed  them  from 
the  army  on  the  ground  that  the  presence  of  his  nephews 
in  any  public  service  might  lead  to  favouritism. 

"I  wonder  what  he  means  by  favouritism? 

"It  certainly  looks  like  favouritism,  within  two  months 
after  he  met  him,  to  appoint  a  young  stranger,  who  had 
never  held  any  rank  in  the  army  of  our  fatherland,  to  a 
command  which  puts  him  second  only  to  himself  and  makes 
him  superior  to  every  officer  in  Asuncion. " 

' '  Colonel  Jaray ! ' '  Don  Sinf oriano  sneered.  ' '  And  there 
were  to  be  no  more  colonels !  On  that  plea,  I  was  retired. 
I,  who  won  my  colonelcy  at  Paraguary  and  Tacuari !  I  am 
nobody,  and  this  upstart  a  Colonel ! ' ' 

"Colonel,  indeed!"  Don  Fulgencio  snorted,  puffing  till 
he  looked  more  like  a  bull-frog  than  ever.  "He  was  to  be 
the  only  Colonel!  There  were  to  be  no  Generals  since 
Paraguay  was  to  remain  at  peace,  and  Generals  were  a 
superfluity!  On  that  pretext,  I  was  retired  along  with 
Atanacio  and  Bogelio  and  Yaleriano  and  my  good  Jerman 
here! 

"And  he  now  dubs  himself  General,  he  that  never  shot 
at  anything  bigger  than  a  sparrow ! 

"And  he  gazettes  as  Colonel  Don  Joaquin  Lopez,  waist- 
deep  in  salt  ooze  in  the  marshes  of  Neembucu,  and  this  fop, 
this  coxcomb,  this  dandiprat!" 

Riding  from  the  Palacio  that  afternoon,  Francia  greatly 
surprised  Hawthorne  by  letting  his  horse  out  into  a  canter. 
He  appeared  in  an  unusually  good  humour. 

At  the  barracks  the  Dictator,  Hawthorne  beside  him,  took 
up  a  position  near  the  middle  at  the  west  side  of  the  drill- 
ground,  the  stables  behind  them.  There  they  watched  the 
infantry  go  through  their  manual  of  arms  under  Beltran's 
orders.  Their  appearance  and  behaviour  were  so  altered 
since  Hawthorne  had  last  seen  them  that  it  was  hard  to 
believe  they  were  the  same  body  of  troops.  Francia  had 
taught  them  to  drill  fairly  well,  but  they  had  had  the  air 
of  suspecting  no  reason  why  they  should  do  what  they  did, 
of  perceiving  no  utility  in  any  posture  they  assumed  or 


394  EL   SUPREMO 

movement  they  made,  of  going  through  the  manual  of  arms 
merely  because  they  were  given  the  orders,  much  as  they 
would  have  stood  on  their  heads,  or  tried  their  best  to  do 
so,  if  El  Supremo  had  so  commanded.  Now  every  com 
pany,  every  man,  had  the  demeanour  of  feeling  that  what 
was  going  forward  was  a  practical  preparation  for  success 
in  battle.  Beltran  had  some  wordless  magic  by  which  he 
made  the  very  air  about  him  tingle  with  the  conviction  that 
he  gave  no  word  of  command  which  was  not  a  positive  aid 
towards  winning  a  fight.  Every  man  had  an  imaginary 
enemy  in  his  mind's  eye  and  the  immediate  hazard  of  vic 
tory  or  death  looming  in  his  imagination.  A  smarter  body 
of  troops  Hawthorne  had  never  seen,  not  even  San  Mar 
tin's. 

For  the  inspection  Francia  did  not  dismount,  merely 
rode  his  horse  at  a  walk  close  in  front  of  the  ranks,  drawn 
up  two  deep.  He  made  no  comments. 

The  inspection  over,  he  took  up  his  position  as  before,  but 
much  closer,  bade  Hawthorne  remain  by  him,  and  called : 

"Garmendia!    Iturbe!" 

When  the  Captain  and  Lieutenant  stood  before  him,  he 
said: 

"Don  Fulano,  this  bribon  disobeyed  you  yesterday;  when 
you  rebuked  him  he  was  insolent.  Why  did  you  not  report 
his  insubordination  to  Colonel  Jaray  or  to  me?" 

* '  I  thought, ' '  Garmendia  replied,  his  eyes  meeting  Fran 
cia 's  boring  glare  full  and  steadily,  "that  I  was  perfectly 
competent  to  discipline  him  myself.  I  can  quell  his  inso 
lence  and  force  his  obedience. '  • 

Francia  grunted. 

* '  If  you  keep  on  that  way, ' '  he  said, ' '  you  11  be  more  than 
&  Captain  yet.  That  is  the  kind  of  man  Paraguay  needs. '  * 

Then  he  turned  to  the  Lieutenant. 

"Don  Nilo,"  he  said  silkily,  "you  disobeyed  your  Cap 
tain.  When  he  reprimanded  you,  you  retorted  that  you  did 
not  have  to  obey  him,  that  you  were  more  of  a  favourite 
with  me  than  he  was.  This  is  what  I  have  heard,  not  from 
Don  Fulano.  Is  it  the  fact?" 

"  It  is  true, ' '  Iturbe  acknowledged. 

"Bribonazo!"  Francia  thundered.  "J  found  you  a  beg 
gar.  I  made  you  a  soldier,  an  officer.  I  find  you  an  in 
subordinate  soldier  and  an  insolent  officer.  You  deserve 


PRINCE   BELTRAN  395 

the  lanquillo.  But  before  I  order  you  shot,  I  shall  try 
whether  you  are  fit  to  live  as  a  beggar.  A  beggar  you  shall 
be  in  an  hour.  If  you  are  a  meek  and  submissive  beggar, 
a  beggar-  you  shall  remain.  If  I  ever  hear  of  you  again, 
die  you  shall." 

He  thereupon  had  fetched  some  worn,  ragged  and  filthy 
garments,  had  Iturbe  stripped  of  his  uniform  and  clothed 
in  these  and  a  tattered  poncho,  formed  two  rows  of  cavalry 
men  with  quirts  in  their  hands,  had  the  cashiered  wretch 
forced  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  their  whips  and,  cut  and  bleed 
ing,  chased  away. 

Riding  off  with  Hawthorne  to  the  knoll,  he  remarked : 

"  Inspection  is  a  mere  form  since  Don  Beltran  has  taken 
charge.  Not  only  they  learnt  at  once  that  his  eye  is  as 
quick  and  his  animadversion  as  firm  as  mine,  but  he  has 
been  able  to  infuse  into  them  a  consciousness  of  what  is 
wanted  and  a  willingness  to  keep  clean  and  orderly,  a 
nicety  I  never  could  impress  upon  them." 

Beltran 's  handling  of  the  cavalry  was  as  distinguished 
as  his  transformation  of  the  infantry.  Francia  was  mani 
festly  delighted,  for  he  took  many  huge  pinches  of  snuff  and 
cantered  most  of  the  way  back  to  the  Palacio. 

(4) 

Two  days  later,  when  Hawthorne  went  to  the  Govern 
ment  House  to  get  his  passports,  he  found  in  the  forecourt 
the  familiar  curule  chair  standing  empty  by  the  littered 
table,  on  the  other  side  of  which  sat  Beltran  in  a  smaller 
arm-chair. 

1  'El  Supremo,"  he  said,  "passed  the  night  at  the  bar 
racks.  I  do  not  know  at  what  hour  he  will  return  to  the 
city,  probably  he  is  already  on  his  way.  In  the  meantime 
he  has  delegated  me  to  dispose  of  any  urgent  routine  cases 
that  may  arise  in  his  absence.  Your  papers  are  here,  dated 
and  signed  by  him,  as  you  see.  As  far  as  they  are  con 
cerned,  you  could  set  out  to-day. 

' '  But  I  advise  you  not  to  leave  without  seeing  him  again. 
Also,  you  had  best  ride  out  to  Itapua  with  me  and  spend 
the  night.  I  expect  to  have  leave  over  night.  I  want  you 
to  talk  to  Crisanto  Yabi.  I  think  you  have  never  noticed 
him." 


396  EL   SUPREMO 

' '  I  never  have, ' '  Hawthorne  answered.    ' '  Who  is  he  ? ' 9 

"One  of  the  family  retainers,"  Beltran  replied,  "and 
distinguished  as  three  years  older  than  grandmother.  He 
was  forty-nine  when  Bucareli  expelled  the  Jesuits  and  had 
lived  since  boyhood  on  one  of  their  2/er6a-plantations  in 
Missiones.  He  knows  all  about  their  methods  of  selecting 
the  wild  seedlings  for  transplantation,  setting  them  out, 
cultivating  them,  cutting  branchlets  and  clipping  bud- 
ends  without  injuring  the  bushes,  raising  plants  from  se 
lected  seed,  propagating  by  cuttings,  improvement  by 
grafting  and  all  the  other  lore  of  the  Jesuit  culture.  I 
believe  he  is  the  only  human  being  alive  who  knows  any 
thing  of  these  matters ;  the  sole  repository  of  arts  otherwise 
lost." 

While  they  were  discussing  the  aged  Indian,  Francia 
entered  the  court. 

"Why,"  he  said,  "it  makes  no  difference  when  you  set 
out  or  how  long  you  linger  in  Asuncion.  Your  passport  is 
good  until  used,  but  you  need  not  use  it  at  once.  Start 
when  you  please  and  ramble  all  you  like.  There  is  no  other 
Galicien  Abendano  le  Fort,  self-styled  Marquess  of  the 
Guaranies,  at  large.  But  I  know  of  a  few  rascals  in  hid 
ing  whose  calves  would  make  a  suitable  target  for  your 
aim.  Take  your  fowling-piece  with  you.  You  have  taught 
me  that  bird-shot  in  the  legs  is  often  as  effectual  a  quietus 
as  a  bullet  through  the  brain. ' ' 

' '  Any  cases  ? "  he  asked  Beltran. 

"Only  one  I  could  not  handle,"  Beltran  replied;  "an 
accusation  of  sorcery. ' ' 

"From  where?"  Francia  queried,  leaning  over  the  arm 
of  his  chair  and  rooting  among  the  papers  about  the  ink 
stand. 

"From  Curuguatay,"  Beltran  replied. 

1 '  What  is  the  accused  like  ? "  he  asked. 

"Good-looking  young  Guarani  woman,"  Beltran  an 
swered. 

1 '  Send  for  her, ' '  Francia  ordered.  * '  If  there  is  a  greater 
dolt  in  Paraguay  than  Padre  Bonifacio  Yeguaea,  it  is  just 
Coinandante  Pelayo  Eobles.  Sorcery!  Just  like  their 
asininity. ' ' 

When  the  young  woman  was  led  in,  Francia  cried: 

' '  Take  those  chains  off  her ! " 


PRINCE   BELTRAN  397 

While  the  order  was  being  carried  out,  he  snorted : 

"A  hundredweight  of  chains  on  a  slip  of  a  gM!" 

When  she  faced  him,  he  enquired : 

"My  dear,  have  you  had  breakfast?" 

"Excellency,"  she  replied,  "the  younger  Excellency  on 
the  other  side  of  the  table  gave  orders  that  I  should  be  fed. 
The  mate  was  heavenly  and  the  chipd  very  good.  Also  the 
oranges. ' ' 

"Why  that  huge  rosary  round  your  neck?"  the  Dictator 
enquired. 

"Padre  Bonifacio  hung  it  on  me  to  exorcise  the  evil 
spirit, ' '  the  girl  said. 

"Have  you  an  evil  spirit?"  Francia  queried. 

"I  know  nothing  of  evil  spirits,"  the  girl  protested,  be 
ginning  to  cry. 

Francia  put  her  through  a  long  series  of  questions,  at 
the  end  of  which  he  said : 

"You  shall  rest  for  two  days  at  Itapua  with  Madrina 
Tuana,  who  understands  everything.  Then  you  shall  re 
turn  to  Curuguatay  undei  guard.  Padre  Yeguaca  shall 
have  your  mother's  house  repaired  and  her  garden  kept 
planted  and  weeded  for  a  year  and  shall  give  you  a 
new  tupoi.  Don  Pelayo  shall  give  you  ten  pesos  in  sil 
ver.  Go  on  curing  women,  men  and  beasts.  Your  art 
is  not  wizardry  and  you  shall  be  honoured,  not  pun 
ished." 

When  she  had  been  led  away,  he  remarked : 

"That  is  the  kind  of  imbecility  I  have  to  contend  with 
perpetually. ' ' 

Just  then  Bopi  shambled  up. 

' '  What  ? ' '  Francia  queried  testily.  ' '  Oh,  well,  bring  him 
in,  bring  him  in." 

Bopi  returned  with  a  mulatto  servant-man  notable  for 
nothing  except  that  he  had  two  good  eyes. 

"What  do  you  want?"  Francia  shot  at  him. 

"Most  Excellent  Sir,"  said  the  mulatto,  "I  have  to  com 
municate  important  information." 

"Important!"  the  Dictator  exclaimed.  "Do  not  pre 
sume,  rascal !  It  is  for  me  to  judge  whether  it  be  important 
or  unimportant.  It  is  not  for  you  to  attempt  to  decide 
for  me.  It  may  not  even  be  information.  Let  us  hear  it. 
Speak  out!" 


398 


EL   SUPREMO 


''Excellency!"  the  mulatto  cringed,  "it  is  for  your  Ex 
cellency  's  ears  only ! ' ' 

"Bribonazo!"  Francia  frowned.  "You  dictate  to  me 
how  I  shall  receive  what  you  make  bold  to  call  informa 
tion  and  important  ?  Tell  this  instant  what  you  have  come 
to  tell,  or  I  shall  have  you  shot  within  an  hour." 

"Excellency,  it  concerns  treason,"  the  mulatto  writhed. 

' '  Whom  do  you  accuse  of  treason  ? ' '  Franeia  thundered. 

"My  master,"  stammered  the  miserable  mulatto. 

"Who  is  your  master,  bribonazo?"  Francia  roared  at 
him. 

' '  Don  Cipriano  Domeque, ' '  the  wretch  managed  to  utter. 

Francia  called  the  guard.    Zorilla  came. 

Francia  glared  at  him. 

' '  Tell  two  of  your  men  to  hold  this  rascal ! ' ' 

"Don  Mateo,"  he  added  more  mildly,  "where  is  Don 
Aquiles  ? ' ' 

"Shall  I  call  him?"  Zorilla  queried. 

"Yes,  fool!"  Francia  snapped. 

When  Ortellado  came,  Francia  commanded : 

"Seek  Don  Cipriano  Domeque.  Tell  him  that  I  request 
his  presence  here  as  promptly  as  possible  concerning  a 
trifling  matter.  Bring  him  with  you.  Be  sure  there  is  nc 
appearance  of  arresting  him,  either  to  himself  or  others. 
Be  quick." 

Until  Ortellado  returned  he  chatted  with  Beltran  and 
Hawthorne,  who  noticed  in  Beltran  a  sort  of  vanity,  of 
self-assertion,  of  which  he  would  not  have  believed  him  ca 
pable. 

When  Domeque  had  entered  and  the  ceremonious  greet 
ings  were  over,  Francia  spoke. 

"Sefior  Don  Cipriano,  this  rascal  servant  of  yours  has 
thrust  himself  into  my  presence  and  intruded  upon  my  time 
to  volunteer  against  you  an  accusation  of  treason.  I  do 
not  approve  of  servants  tattling  on  their  betters.  A  serv 
ant  disloyal  to  his  master  is  likely  disloyal  to  me  and  to 
the  republic,  is  probably  a  scoundrel  in  hopes  of  a  cash 
reward. 

"I  propose  to  have  this  Itribon  given  fifty  lashes  in  the 
open  market-square  and  confined  six  months  in  the  public 
prison.  I  have  sent  for  you  to  make  sure  that  your  views 
meet  mine.  Do  you  approve?" 


PRINCE   BELTRAN  399 

Domeque,  his  knees  knocking  together  with  fright,  his 
face  mottled  with  bewilderment,  signified  his  approval. 

"Bien,"  said  Francia.    "Retirese." 

Don  Cipriano  escaped. 

Francia  dismissed  Ortellado  also,  called  Zorilla,  gave 
him  the  orders  for  the  mulatto's  flogging,  and  wearily  sig 
nified  that  Hawthorne  might  remain  or  depart,  as  he  pre 
ferred. 

At  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop  Hawthorne  again  found  Bel- 
tran's  brevet  rank  and  importance  the  main  topic  of  con 
versation.  As  elsewhere,  he  heard  there  endless  discus 
sions  on  the  subject.  Beltran  was  dubbed  "Prince  Bel 
tran"  and  by  the  more  cultured  and  better-read  old  Span 
iards  was  also  alluded  to  as  "Prince  Eugene  Beauhar- 
nais." 

The  Dictator's  treatment  of  him  was  also  argued  over. 
Some  held  that  it  was  an  evidence  of  his  diabolical  astute 
ness,  that  he  had  found  a  tool  suited  to  his  hand;  others 
hinted  at  dotage. 

Don  Bermudo  said,  whispering : 

"His  fate  is  upon  him.  Never  has  his  flinty  heart  felt 
a  throb  of  affection  since  it  began  to  beat.  This 
galliard  has  won  his  liking.  He  puts  himself  in  his 
hands.  We  shall  see  his  downfall.  The  Jarays  were  a 
fine  family.  Perhaps  we  shall  be  better  off  under  a  young 
despot. ' ' 

Don  Gregorio  shook  his  head. 

"Did  you  ever  know  him  to  make  a  mistake?"  he  que 
ried.  "This  looks  like  weakness.  It  might  be  in  another 
man.  In  him  it  is  doubtless  calculated.  Put  himself  in 
another's  power!  Not  he!  Be  assured  he  makes  this  pa 
rade  of  trust  in  another  for  some  hidden  reasons  of  his 
own.  He  is  deep.  He  has  all  the  strings  of  power  in  his 
own  hands,  as  before. ' ' 

Don  Porfirio  sneered. 

"He  has  a  purpose,  not  any  purpose  we  can  divine.  If 
Don  Beltran  sits  in  the  patio  of  the  Government  House  as 
deputy  and  proxy,  it  is  not  because  any  real  power  is  dele 
gated  to  him,  not  because  he  is  being  trained  for  a  suc 
cessor  to  inherit  Paraguay.  It  is  because  El  Supremo  has 
reasons  of  his  own  for  being  elsewhere.  Or  perhaps  merely 
{foresees  the  possibility  of  his  wanting  to  be  elsewhere  at 


400  EL   SUPREMO 

some  future  date  and  is  habituating  Asuncion  to  his  ab 
sence  for  a  day  or  two  at  a  time. 

"Or  perhaps  he  is  laying  a  trap  to  catch  his  enemies,  if 
they  are  fools  enough  to  presume  on  his  absence  and  try 
to  rush  a  barrack  and  proclaim  a  revolution.  If  so,  he 
has  all  his  nets  ready  for  the  gulls  that  may  light  upon  his 
bait.  Beware!" 

And  Don  Cipriano  sighed: 

*  *  Beware  indeed !  I  was  never  so  terrified  in  my  entire 
existence.  If  he  ignores  and  declines  information  from  a 
servant,  it  is  most  likely  because  he  does  not  need  it.  I 
try  to  convince  myself  it  might  be  a  whim;  his  whims  are 
countless.  But  I  tremble.  It  is  more  probable  that  he 
knows  all  my  acts  and  words.  If  so,  however,  why  does  he 
not  order  me  shot?  That  man  is  unfathomable." 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

TOBACCO  AND  IRON 
(1) 

HAWTHORNE  began  his  explorations  by  travelling 
southwards  in  the  direction  of  the  reported  iron- 
fields,  keeping  well  to  the  eastwards  of  Lake  Ypoa  and  the 
marsh-land  about  it.  His  first  important  stop  was  at  Ya» 
guaron.  There  he  found  Don  Pedro  Francia,  a  fat,  easy 
going  old  man,  appearing  full  fifteen  years  the  elder  of  his 
exalted  brother.  He  seemed  quite  content  to  be  mayor  of 
an  unpretentious  village  and  superintendent  of  extensive 
plantations.  He  exhibited  with  pride  his  fields  of  tobacco, 
descanting  with  gusto  on  the  virtues  of  the  "peti  hoby" 
variety,  the  seed  of  which  his  father  had  brought  with  him 
from  Brazil.  It  was  a  novelty  to  Hawthorne,  its  leaves 
having  so  decidedly  bluish  a  cast  that  in  most  conditions 
of  sunlight  the  fields  appeared  not  green,  but  expanses  of 
deep  blue  leafage. 

Don  Pedro,  in  honour  of  his  guest,  had  the  curate  and 
two  of  the  aldermen  of  Yaguaron  to  dinner  as  well  as  three 
of  the  hacendados  of  the  neighbourhood. 

The  next  day  the  Tape  Indians  had  a  sort  of  fiesta,  the 


TOBACCO   AND    IRON  401 

main  features  of  which  were  a  bull-fight,  a  miracle  play, 
and  a  sortija. 

The  sortija,  which  means  merely  "ring,"  was  a  game  of 
tilting  at  a  ring  much  like  a  Virginia  tournament,  only 
the  horses  were  urged  not  merely  to  a  canter  but  to  a  fren 
zied  gallop,  and  the  riders  attempted  to  take  the  ring  not 
with  a  lance,  but  with  their  sabres,  swords  or  daggers,  if 
they  set  up  to  be  gentlemen,  or  on  the  point  of  a  wooden 
poniard,  if  they  were  simple  folk. 

The  miracle  play,  enacted  on  a  small  platform  exposed 
to  view  on  all  sides,  was  rendered  by  some  half  dozen  Tape 
Indians,  who  astonished  Hawthorne  by  entering  into  the 
spirit  of  their  parts  and  acting  creditably.  The  scenes 
they  performed  represented  the  coming  to  South  America 
of  the  Apostle  Thomas,  bearing  the  actual  cross  upon  which 
Christ  had  hung  on  Calvary,  his  conversion  of  the  na 
tives,  his  concealment  of  his  precious  relic  in  a  grotto  high 
up  the  slopes  of  Cerro  de  Santo  Tomas,  his  death,  the  mi 
raculous  power  of  the  cross  to  transport  itself  unaided  to  the 
help  of  the  afflicted  or  distressed  who  worthily  pray  for  its 
succour;  the  disappearance  of  disease  or  danger  upon  its 
arrival ;  its  miraculous  return  to  the  holy  cavern. 

The  "bull-fight"  was  notable  chiefly  for  the  tameness  of 
the  bulls  and  the  timidity  of  the  men.  Its  most  exciting 
incident  occurred  wrhen  one  Indian  ran  away  too  late  or 
too  slowly.  The  bull's  horns  caught  his  breeches  and 
ripped  them  to  tatters,  whereupon  the  audience  joyfully 
yelled : 

"There  go  the  rotten  English  velveteens!" 

The  neighbourhood  of  Yaguaron  had  plenty  of  worked- 
out  tobacco-fields,  but  not  a  shoot  of  yerla.  In  fact,  Haw 
thorne  discovered  at  once  that  no  yerba-ilex.  existed  any 
where  within  reasonable  walking  distance  of  any  Para 
guayan  town  or  farmstead.  The  labourers  of  the  towns  and 
peons  on  the  estancias  too  poor  to  buy  mate  gathered  it 
wherever  it  was  reachable,  so  that  not  only  trees,  but 
bushes  of  it  had  been  extirpated  in  all  settled  regions. 

At  Paraguary  he  went  over  both  battle-fields  and  heard 
from  residents  the  tale  of  the  "terrible  defeat"  of  Janu 
ary  the  eleventh  and  of  the  "glorious  victory"  of  January 
the  nineteenth,  which  had  checked  Belgrano's  invasion. 

From  Paraguary  he  journeyed  leisurely  by  way  of  Cara- 


402  EL   SUPREMO 

pegua,  Tapaby  and  Quiyndy  to  Caapucu.  There  he  in 
spected  the  by  no  means  contemptible  outcrop  of  iron  ore. 

Thence  he  turned  northwards  again  to  Ibicuy,  where  he 
found  more  indication  of  workable  iron  deposits,  and  some 
few  yerba  bushes,  here  and  there  in  the  undergrowth  on 
Mount  Tatacua. 

At  Ibitimi  he  found  another  of  the  Dictator's  brothers, 
Don  Juan  Jose  Francia,  a  bluff,  sunburned  man  with  very 
curly  black  hair  and  a  crispy  jet-black  beard,  almost  the 
only  full  beard  Hawthorne  had  seen  on  any  native  of  Par 
aguay.  Don  Jose  was  a  prosperous  hacendado,  utterly  ab 
sorbed  in  horse-breeding,  at  which  he  was  an  adept,  and 
of  which  he  talked  incessantly. 

His  only  other  subject  of  conversation  was  his  poncho,  a 
really  exquisite  fabric  of  a  delicate  fawn-colour,  with  a 
texture  soft  as  velvet.  It  was  of  the  finest  selected  Peru 
vian  vicuna  wool.  He  boasted  that  it  was  more  than  two 
hundred  years  old  and  had  been  worn  continuously,  yet 
showed  no  sign  of  wear,  being  as  durable  as  woven  steel. 
It  had  been  brought  from  Peru  by  a  Don  Salvador  Isquibel, 
an  ancestor  of  Beltran  and  Dona  Juana,  who  had  come  to 
Asuncion  in  the  retinue  of  Don  Diego  Martin  Negromi. 
As  that  worthy  had  returned  to  Spain  in  1615,  the  age  of 
the  poncho  was  considered  established  by  the  tradition  as 
to  its  first  owner.  So  priceless  a  garment  had  been  passed 
on  from  father  to  son  as  a  treasure  until  a  Don  Pamfilo 
Isquibel,  its  eighth  possessor,  had  given  it  in  token  of 
friendship  to  Don  Hermengildo  Caballero,  whose  son  Don 
Pantaleone,  referred  to  by  Don  Jose  as  ''Grandfather  Ca 
ballero,"  had  left  the  heirloom  to  the  horse-breeder  as  his 
favourite  grandson.  He  bragged  that  its  colour  never  al 
tered,  whether  wet  or  dry,  and  that  no  tempest  ever  beat 
through  it,  that  it  would  turn  the  heaviest  rainfall  and 
keep  its  wearer  dry  even  if  he  rode  all  day  in  the  depth  of 
the  rainy  season. 

Don  Jose  talked  without  embarrassment  of  the  great  man 
of  the  family. 

"Gaspar,"  he  said,  "is  as  good  a  judge  of  a  horse  as  I 
am.  He  buys  colts  from  here  for  his  crack  company  of 
horse-guards,  hussars  he  calls  them.  He  never  fails  to 
pick  just  the  very  two-year-olds  I  had  marked  out  as  the 
flower  of  my  herds.  I  have  much  respect  for  Gaspar." 


TOBACCO   AND    IRON  403 

From  Ibitimi  Hawthorne  swung  off  to  the  east  to  Villa 
Bica  and  from  there  proceeded  north-westwards  by  Ibaty, 
Valenzuela  and  Pirobebuy  to  Caacupe. 

This  entire  excursion,  from  the  time  he  reached  Guaram- 
bare,  his  first  stopping-place  out  of  Asuncion,  had  been  a 
continuous  ovation  for  Hawthorne.  Every  estancia  gath 
ered  or  killed  its  best  for  him  and  invited  the  most  promi 
nent  neighbours  to  dine  or  sup  in  his  honour.  As  he  left 
each  its  owner,  generally  with  a  crony  or  two,  accompanied 
him  to  the  nearest  hacienda,  and  often  also  on  the  next 
stage  of  his  journey,  so  that  he  rode  with  five  or  six  jovial 
companions,  all  magnificently  horsed  and  each  followed  by 
his  man-servant  on  mule-back. 

At  each  village  the  Alcalde  and  the  curate  entertained 
him  with  rustic  profusion,  as  had  happened  at  Yaguaron. 
If  they  could  persuade  him  to  remain  over  the  next  day, 
they  organised  a  fiesta,  with  its  accompaniments  of  a  sortija, 
a  miracle  play  and  a  bull-fight  to  divert  him. 

Heralded  everywhere  as  a  special  friend  of  the  Dictator, 
his  was  a  triumphal  progress.  , 

He  noted  the  most  striking  differences  between  Asuncion 
and  the  rest  of  the  country.  In  fact,  everybody  spoke  of 
the  capital  simply  as  "la  Ciudad" — "the  city."  If  the 
burghers  were  old-fashioned  and  rococo,  the  yeomanry  were 
primitive,  almost  archaic. 

The  costume  in  vogue  in  the  city  was  at  least  fifty  years 
behind  the  times,  being  the  provincial  version  of  the  fash 
ions  of  Paris  under  Louis  XV,  as  copied  in  Madrid  under 
Carlos  III.  In  the  country  it  was  in  mocVs  antiquated  by 
more  than  a  century,  those  of  the  Grand  Monarque's  Ver 
sailles  filtered  through  the  court  round  Carlos  II  at  the 
Escurial.  The  townsmen  ran  to  stockings  trig  on  the  calf 
and  breeches  buckled  snugly  to  the  leg;  the  rustics  uni 
versally  sported  breeches  unfastened  at  the  knee  and  per 
mitting  the  openwork  edging,  frills  and  ruffles  of  their 
white  cambric  drawers  to  depend  about  their  calves. 

The  more  clownish  of  the  hacendados  and  the  bumpkins 
and  yokels  without  exception  wore  over  their  furbelowed 
caleconcillos,  not  breeches,  but  that  universal  Gaucho  gar 
ment  a  chiripd.  A  chiripd  is  a  sort  of  blanket,  often 
doubled  and  sometimes  twice  doubled,  belted  round  the 
waist  and  reaching  to  the  knees,  like  a  kilt,  but  not  worn 


404  EL   SUPREMO 

like  a  kilt.  For  when  his  belt  was  adjusted  to  his  liking 
the  wearer  tucked  the  front  of  his  ckiripd  between  his  legs, 
pulled  the  back  of  it  forward  and  as  far  up  in  front  as 
possible  and  fastened  it  with  a  big  pin  or  clasp.  The  ad 
vantage  of  a  chiripd  is  that  a  horseman  wearing  one  is 
practically  secure  from  chafing,  no  matter  how  long  or 
how  hard  he  rides. 

At  Pirobebuy,  Hawthorne  inspected  the  state  sulphur 
mine  and  noted  the  kind  of  rock  adjacent  to  the  vein. 

At  Caacupe  he  found  himself  upon  one  of  the  Velarde 
haciendas,  a  vast  extent  of  property  under  the  charge  of  a 
really  extraordinary  capataz  named  Borda  and  addressed 
as  Don  Carlampio.  He  was  that  most  unusual  product,  a 
garrulous  and  voluble  Castilian.  He  had  been  a  lieutenant 
in  the  army,  an  officer  of  coast-guards,  a  sea-captain,  and 
a  smuggler.  He  hated  Spain  and  Spaniards  with  a  furious 
hatred  and  fairly  gnashed  his  teeth  when  he  spoke  of  the 
"Goths."  Across  his  face  were  two  long  sabre  slashes, 
white  and  puckered,  one  from  the  left  ear  to  the  point  of 
the  chin  all  across  his  left  cheek ;  the  other  across  the  fore 
head,  the  bridge  of  the  nose,  the  right  cheek  and  jaw.  The 
lower  just  missed  the  left  corner  of  his  mouth,  the  upper 
almost  bridged  the  interval  from  eye  to  eye.  They  changed 
colour  as  he  talked :  lead-grey  when  he  was  calm,  blue  when 
he  became  excited,  enamel-white  when  he  grew  angry,  and 
purple-brown  at  the  end  of  a  fit  of  laughter. 

At  the  first  opportunity,  he  managed  to  leave  his  other 
guests  chatting  and  smoking  under  the  brick-paved  veran 
dah  while  he  led  Hawthorne  off  to  view  the  stables  and 
corrals.  Beneath  a  lean-to  shed,  well  out  of  sight  and 
hearing,  he  pointed  to  a  small,  flattish  mound,  and  said: 

1 '  That  is  our  old-time  nitriary. ' ' 

He  emphasised  the  word  "old." 

Some  thirty  yards  away,  he  bade  Hawthorne  look  be 
hind  some  ragged  bushes. 

Hawthorne  could  see  nothing  but  some  particularly  loath 
some  weeds,  about  four  posts  supporting  a  rickety  roof 
of  thatch. 

"You  wouldn't  suspect  a  nitriary  there,  would  you?" 
Borda  queried.  '  *  There  is  one  there ;  the  first  I  made  after 
word  was  passed  round.  I've  six  more  besides,  all  well 
Chidden,  and  I've  gathered  half  an  arroba  of  good  clean 


TOBACCO    AND    IRON  405 

saltpetre  crystals  already.  It  forms  fast  when  you  have 
part  of  an  old  nitriary  to  mix  through  a  fresh-made  heap. 

"I  did  not  merely  split  our  nitriary;  I  mean  to  have  a 
full  dozen  and  all  so  hidden  that  no  spy  could  ever  find 
one.  You'll  never  locate  the  rest  unless  I  show  you." 

Hawthorne 's  face  was  perfectly  blank. 

"Seiior  Don  Guillermo,"  Borda  cried,  "I  am  one  of 
you!" 

"One  of  whom?"  Hawthorne  asked  tonelessly. 

"One  of  the  conspirators,"  Borda  replied.  "I  am  a 
member  of  your  conspiracy." 

' *  I  know  nothing  of  any  conspiracy, ' '  Hawthorne  replied. 
* '  I  have  no  idea  what  you  are  talking  of,  Don  Carlampio. ' ' 

Borda  produced  two  papers  and  handed  them  to  Haw 
thorne. 

The  first  read : 

"Don  Carlampio  is  one  of  us,  and  is  aware  of  our  plans." 

It  was  signed  by  Don  Eustaquio  Baiz,  Don  Cipriano 
Domeque  and  Don  Sinforiano  Guerreros. 

The  second  read: 

* '  AMIGO  DON  GUILLERMO  : 

"Don  Carlampio  is  our  loyal  adherent,  and  may  be 
trusted.  You  may  take  the  word  of  your  admiring  friend, 

"MANUEL  ATANACIO  CABANAS." 

Hawthorne  gravely  read  both  twice  through,  carefully. 

Then  he  lit  each  at  his  cigar  and  watched  it  flare,  pun6 
and  crumble. 

"Writing,"  he  said,  "will  ruin  any  man  or  body  of 
men.  Papers  like  these  are  too  risky. ' ' 

"They  were  given  to  me  personally,  Seiior  Don  Guil 
lermo,"  Borda  explained,  "and  I  would  have  defended 
them  with  my  life.  I  had  to  have  papers  to  make  you  be 
lieve  me.  You  took  me  for  a  spy,  as  I  foresaw.  Time 
presses;  I  did  not  wish  to  waste  any  while  you  returned 
to  Asuncion  and  journeyed  back  here.  There  is  iron  in 
abundance  hereabouts.  I  have  worked  in  forges  in  the 
Pyrenees  when  I  was  a  smuggler.  I  have  seen  cannon  cast 
and  have  some  vague  notion  of  the  process.  I  have  a 
beautiful  outcrop  of  pure  sulphur,  totally  unsuspected  and 
perfectly  concealed.  We  raise  peti-hoby  tobacco  here,  there 
«tre  yerba-shrubs  scattered  about  in  the  undergrowth  in 


406  EL   SUPREMO 

the  gorges  of  Costa  de  Ascuira.  I  brought  back  with  me 
from  Asuncion  Crisanto  Yabi,  and  he  is  full  of  reminis 
cences  of  the  Jesuit  plantations.  Everything  ought  to  go 
very  smoothly.  The  Velardes  are  proverbially  easy  to 
bamboozle  and  hoodwink.  Don  Lupercio  is  more  alert  than 
any  of  them,  but  he  can  be  gulled  about  casting  cannon  by 
casting  huge  pans  for  yerba-roastmg,  as  you  outlined  to 
Don  Eustaquio  and  the  rest ;  he  will  be  all  interest  in  your 
proposed  new  methods.  Yabi  has  no  inkling  of  our  true 
aim,  of  course,  and  his  chatter  will  be  a  complete  blind. 
TVe  ought  to  get  on  well.  Don  Lupercio  should  be  here 
to-morrow. ' ' 

(2) 

The  owner  of  the  estancia,  in  fact,  arrived  early  the 
next  day.  Hawthorne  would  have  known  him  anywhere 
for  a  near  relative  of  Ventura's.  For  Don  Lupercio  Ve 
larde  was  a  magnificent  specimen  of  humanity.  He  was  a 
tall  man,  slender  but  compactly  built,  and  astonishingly 
muscular.  His  hair  was  very  abundant,  soft  and  fine,  and, 
though  every  thread  of  it  was  silver-white,  it  did  not  make 
him  look  an  old  man,  it  rather  accentuated  the  sense  of 
physical  vigour  wrhich  diffused  from  his  every  attitude  and 
movement,  and  it  very  much  set  off  his  hale,  ruddy  counte 
nance  and  penetrating  blue  eyes.  Besides  looking  amaz 
ingly  young,  he  was  positively  handsome:  his  forehead 
broad  and  serene,  his  brows  pencilled,  his  nose  Grecian, 
his  mouth  small  and  beautifully  curved,  his  chin  round 
and  firm. 

He  wore  a  large  Peruvian  straw  hat,  with  a  black  velvet 
band ;  an  upper  garment  which  was  a  striking  and  effective 
compromise  between  poncho  and  capote;  soft  vicuna  cloth, 
as  for  a  poncho,  dyed  the  deep  crimson  fashionable  for 
capotes,  and  embroidered  superbly  with  white  corded  silk ; 
a  Gaucho  jacket  of  hunter 's-green  broadcloth,  frogged  with 
white  braid,  a  white  satin  waistcoat,  heavily  embroidered 
with  gold  cord  and  edged  with  a  row  of  small  gold  buttons, 
almost  touching  each  other,  and  a  corresponding  row  of 
gold-worked  buttonholes.  His  cravat  was  of  patriot 's-blue 
silk,  very  ample  and  Byronic;  the  collar  and  front  of  his 
fine  cambric  shirt  were  tamboured  heavily  and  richly;  his 


TOBACCO   AND   IRON  407 

waist  was  girt  with  a  broad  twisted  sash  of  heavy  lustrous 
crimson  silk,  above  which  showed  the  silver  hilt  of  a  huge 
knife  in  a  morocco  case,  and  the  butts  of  two  neat,  silver- 
mounted  pistols.  He  wore  black  velvet  knee-breeches  open 
at  the  knees,  with  more  gold-worked  buttonholes  and  more 
gold  buttons,  each  being  on  tiny  links  of  gold  chain  and 
manifestly  never  intended  to  touch  the  buttonholes. 

From  below  the  knee-breeches  hung,  according  to  the 
Gaucho  fashion,  the  broad  lace  fringes  and  tamboured  ruf 
fles  of  his  fine  linen  caleconcillos,  depending  to  the  calves 
of  his  legs,  which  were  covered  by  brown  stockings,  not  of 
silk  but  of  beautiful  silky  Peruvian  vicuna  wool.  His 
potro  boots  were  soft  and  fine  as  a  French  kid  glove  and  no 
French  kid  glove  ever  fitted  a  hand  and  wrist  closer  and 
more  perfectly  than  Don  Lupercio's  fitted  his  feet  and 
ankles.  At  his  heels  jingled  brightly  polished  spurs;  all 
of  silver  and  their  spiked  rowels  bigger  than  dollars.  His 
small  feet  were  supported  by  stirrups  of  solid  silver,  weigh 
ing  at  least  five  pounds  apiece,  slung  to  stirrup-leathers  of 
braided  leather,  dyed  red,  white  and  blue ;  his  high-peaked 
saddle  was  all  deep  grass-green  velvet,  edged  with  a  broad, 
heavy  rim  of  silver ;  as  were  the  great,  green- velvet  holsters 
from  which  protruded  the  butts  of  two  more  pistols.  These 
were  as  large  as  his  belt-pistols  were  small,  and  their  butts 
were  all  silver.  So  were  the  bosses  on  his  reins  and  at 
every  juncture  of  the  straps  on  the  head-piece  of  his  bridle ; 
the  grip,  guard  and  scabbard  of  his  long  horseman 's-sabre; 
the  massive,  chased  handle  of  the  short  whip  called  a 
rebenque,  which  hung  from  his  wrist  by  a  thong;  the  lid, 
chain  and  rings  on  the  horn-tip  housing  the  tinder,  flint 
and  steel,  with  which  he  continually  lit  his  frequent  ciga 
rettes. 

All  of  which  fashions  he  had  acquired  during  his  eight 
years'  partnership  with  Don  Francisco  Candioti  and  had 
imported  with  him  from  Santa  Fe  on  his  return  from  his 
ten  years'  absence  down  the  river  with  that  prince  of 
Gauchos. 

Don  Lupercio  was  princely  himself,  every  fibre  of  him. 

"We  Velardes,"  he  said,  "live  by  cattle  and  horses,  of 
which  we  have  more  than  any  two  families  in  Paraguay, 
and  we  prosper  by  them.  Half  the  increase  of  our  herds 
provides  us  with  every  luxury  obtainable  in  this  part  of 


4o8  EL    SUPREMO 

the  world.  So  we  revel  in  all  God's  best  gifts,  and  our 
wealth  continually  increases.  "We  cultivate  sugar,  coffee, 
cotton  and  tobacco  on  our  estancias  for  the  greater  glory 
and  prosperity  of  the  patria,  for  our  country's  benefit,  not 
for  any  profit  additional  to  our  income  from  the  cattle  and 
horses,  for  we  need  none.  If  it  be  for  the  good  of  the 
patria,  we  shall  cultivate  yerba,  too;  or  oranges,  if  you 
like;  though  why  one  should  cultivate  with  labour  what 
abounds  wild  in  every  direction,  I  do  not  understand. 
But  you  have  my  permission,  even  my  countenance.  Use 
any  part  of  my  land  that  suits  you  best ;  it  is  at  your  dis 
position;  so  are  my  peons  to  the  last  man.  If  nothing 
comes  of  it,  no  matter.  If  you  achieve  results,  I  shall  ben 
efit,  as  well  as  the  patria. 

"The  patria  cannot  but  profit  by  iron-smelting.  Don  La- 
zaro  Ribera  de  Espinosa  sent  for  experts  from  Catalonia 
and  they  worked  in  his  time  not  only  at  Caapucu  and 
Ibicuy,  but  also  here  and  at  Atira.  But  they  accomplished 
nothing  worth  while;  a  few  spurs,  a  few  spikes  for  ship 
builders,  some  bad  sabres ;  hardly  more. 

1 '  Be  it  yerba,  iron,  or  what  not,  be  sure  of  my  assistance 
and  patronage.  I  am  an  enthusiastic  patriot;  you  are  the 
friend  of  our  incomparable  Dictator.  Also,  you  are 
the  friend  of  my  beloved  niece,  therefore  doubly  my 
friend." 

"How  is  Sefiorita  Ventura?"  Hawthorne  enquired. 

"In  the  best  of  health,"  Don  Lupercio  answered  suavely. 

"I  mean  to  ride  on  to  San  Bernardino,"  Hawthorne  said, 
"and  visit  your  brother  on  my  way  to  Atira.  I  should  like 
to  see  your  niece  again. ' ' 

Don  Lupercio  at  once  became  grave,  even  solemn. 

"Ventura,"  he  said,  "would  indubitably  be  overjoyed 
to  receive  you.  My  brother  has  always  been  the  most  hos 
pitable  of  men.  He  would  undoubtedly  be  most  indignant, 
even  wrathful  with  me,  should  he  ever  learn  of  my  having 
discouraged  a  prospective  visitor  to  his  estancia.  But  I 
must  do  just  that,  and  without  explanation.  Conditions  at 
Don  Toribio's  home  are  such  that  it  is  best  that  you  do  not 
visit  San  Bernardino,  nor  let  any  rumour  that  you  are  so 
near  them  reach  its  residents.  Move  back  and  forth  as  you 
please  from  here  to  Atira;  Carlampio  is  head  overseer  of 
all  iny  estates ;  of  Atira  as  of  Caacupe.  He  will  give  you 


TOBACCO   AND    IRON      ^f  409 

every  assistance.    But  do  not  turn  aside  to  San  Bernardino. 
A  word  to  the  wise,  Seiior  Don  Guillermo,  is  enough ! ' ' 


(3) 

Crisanto  Yabi  was  a  full-blooded  Indian,  without  a  trace 
of  European  ancestry.  But  he  was  no  Guarani,  though  he 
spoke  Guarani  and  called  himself  a  Guarani.  He  had  been 
a  foundling  brought  up  by  the  Jesuits;  but  whether  his 
parents  had  been  Quirandis,  Guaragos,  Orejones,  Tobas  or 
Charruas  could  only  be  conjectured. 

He  was  a  hale  and  vigorous  octogenarian  still  capable  of 
prolonged  exertion  without  fatigue ;  tall,  with  a  great  deal 
of  lean  muscle  laid  thinly  over  his  big- jointed  bones.  As 
he  had  no  teeth  left,  his  countenance  had  that  peculiar 
aspect  of  being  wider  than  it  was  high,  which  results  from 
the  closing  up  of  aged  jaws.  His  face  was  a  mass  of  criss 
cross  wrinkles,  and  in  texture  and  colour  was  like  rain- 
soaked  and  sun-dried  leather. 

It  was  easier  to  make  him  talk  yerba  than  to  get  him  to 
stop. 

' '  Seed  ? "  he  said.  ' '  Oh,  long  time,  long  time  seed.  Hunt 
in  woods.  Find  ferns,  not  any  kind  fern,  right  kind  fern. 
Deep  under  tall  tree.  Close,  no  sun  come  through.  Clear 
away  all  plant,  all  bush,  leave  only  fern  below,  only  tree 
above.  "Watch,  maybe  a  year,  maybe  three  year.  Then  pull 
up  fern,  root  and  all,  spade  and  hoe  much,  all  smooth. 
Plant  yerba  seed,  maybe  grow.  Maybe  not.  If  not,  try 
other  place.  Slow,  very  slow. 

"But  transplant.  Quick,  very  quick.  Easy.  Find 
young  yerba  shrub.  Find  plenty.  Up  mountain  in  gully. 
Clear  away  all  weed.  Hoe  about  roots.  Watch.  Take  old 
field,  plow,  hoe,  spade,  get  all  ready.  Come  rainy  time. 
Wait  for  moonlight.  Go  out  at  sunset.  Wait.  Sun  set. 
Dig  up  yerba  shrub,  all  roots,  little  roots,  cut  no  roots.  Tie 
in  bundle.  Carry  to  field.  Plant  in  row,  like  maize.  Next 
day,  maybe  rain.  Good.  Maybe  no  rain.  Go  round  at 
night,  pour  water  on  plant.  Good.  Always  at  night. 
Good.  Grow. 

"Move  yerba  shrub  by  sunlight,  always  die;  move  by 
moonlight,  mostly  live.  Easy." 


4io  EL   SUPREMO 

Characteristically,  Yabi  would  neither  talk  nor  stop  for 
Hawthorne,  but  would  do  either  for  Borda.  For  Borda 
likewise  he  worked  with  a  vigour  and  pertinacity  rare  in 
an  Indian  of  any  race  or  age. 

Oscillating  between  Caacupe  and  Atira,  Hawthorne  spent 
a  strenuous  period  in  the  company  of  the  three.  Don  Lu- 
percio  merely  looked  resplendent,  beamed  indulgent  pat 
ronage  and  smoked  countless  cigarillos. 

Yabi  hobbled  up  and  down  hillsides  and  identified  hun 
dreds  of  2/erfra-shrubs,  appearing  in  the  undergrowth  of 
the  forests  much  like  stunted  young  laurel  bushes,  remind 
ing  Hawthorne  of  those  he  had  seen  in  the  ash  and  chestnut 
woodlands  near  Philadelphia.  Also  they  were  something 
like  sassafras.  As  discovered,  Yabi  prepared  the  best  for 
transplanting,  fairly  bristling  with  importance  at  finding 
himself  in  charge  of  a  gang  of  peons. 

Borda,  it  appeared,  had  happened  upon  his  vein  of  sul 
phur  not  near  Caacupe,  but  close  to  Atira.  There  likewise 
he  had  many  nitriaries.  Charcoal  burners  he  set  to  work 
on  both  estates,  remarking  that  the  small  portion  of  char 
coal  they  would  use  for  gunpowder  would  never  be  missed 
out  of  the  vast  quantity  they  must  consume  in  iron-smelt 
ing,  which  indeed  turned  out  to  be  enormous  in  comparison 
with  local  habits  of  production  and  kitchen  consumption. 

Iron  ore  was  more  abundant  at  Caacupe,  but  there  was 
near  Atira  a  comparatively  small  vein  of  most  promising 
quality.  On  this  Hawthorne  commenced. 

The  moment  he  began  giving  directions  for  setting  up  a 
Catalan  forge,  Borda  recognised  the  characteristics  of  the 
sort  of  iron-furnaces  at  which  he  had  worked  in  the  Pyre 
nees. 

"But,"  he  objected,  "you  can't  make  cast-iron  in  a  fur 
nace  like  that." 

"Don  Carlampio,"  Hawthorne  said,  "let  us  find  out  all 
the  foolish  blunders  the  peons  can  make  over  so  simple  a 
process  as  this  before  we  hazard  anything  so  difficult  and 
ticklish  as  attempting  to  cast  pig-iron  from  a  closed  oven. " 

In  fact,  for  what  seemed  an  endless  procession  of  days, 
Hawthorne  found  himself  involved  in  endeavouring  to 
infuse  into  cheerful  and  willing  but  incredibly  dull  and 
stolid  peons  some  inklings  of  the  mysteries  of  stone  bases, 
.layers  of  charcoal  brasque  rammed  down  hard,  tuyeres 


TOBACCO   AND    IRON  411 

and  their  proper  inclination,  bellows-making,  the  right 
proportions  of  ore  above  and  charcoal  below,  the  right 
slope  for  the  charcoal  behind  and  the  ore  in  front,  the 
moist  mixing  of  a  greillado,  the  spread  of  the  greillado 
over  the  top  and  front  of  the  heap  of  ore  and  charcoal,  the 
judicious  packing  of  this  protecting  coat,  its  maintenance 
during  the  firing,  the  withdrawal  at  just  the  right  time  of 
the  resultant  mass  of  spongy  iron  out  of  the  liquid  bath  of 
melted  silica,  gangue  and  cinder.  He  stuck  to  it  all  dog 
gedly  till  he  could  leave  the  trained  peons  at  the  empty 
furnace  to  pack  it,  fire  it  and  draw  it  themselves  unwatched 
and  unguided,  and  be  sure  to  find  them  triumphant  over  a 
good-sized  mass  of  spongy  iron,  by  a  furnace  in  fair  con 
dition  to  be  recharged  and  fired  up  again. 

"What  use  do  you  mean  to  make  of  the  first  iron  you 
forge?"  Don  Lupercio  enquired,  blowing  a  series  of  as 
tonishingly  perfect  smoke-rings,  as  he  lolled  half  out  of 
his  saddle,  one  knee  crooked  over  the  peak  of  it,  his  elbow 
on  his  horse's  mane. 

"I  shall  make  some  respectable  tuyeres,"  Hawthorne 
said ;  ' '  those  wretched  old  gun-barrels  we  have  been  using 
are  better  than  nothing,  but  not  much.  "When  we  have 
tuyeres  of  the  right  size  and  taper,  we  shall  do  far  better." 

"And  with  the  next?"  Don  Lupercio  pressed  him. 

"As  soon  as  I  have  enough  iron,"  Hawthorne  replied, 
"I  shall  make  piping  with  it,  construct  a  serpentine  coil 
of  it  in  the  chimney  of  the  furnace,  connect  one  end  with 
the  bellows  and  the  other  with  the  tuyere,  and  pass  the 
blast  through  it,  thus  heating  the  air  before  it  reaches  the 
fuel.  Thus  we  shall  make  twice  as  much  usable  iron  from 
the  same  weight  of  ore  with  barely  half  the  charcoal  we  now 
consume. ' ' 

When  one  band  of  peons  had  learnt  their  trade,  Borda 
used  them  as  foremen  for  the  gangs  of  the  five  Catalan 
forges  he  soon  had  going  near  Atira  and  of  three  more  at 
Caacupe. 

Then  they  attempted  smelting  ore  for  casting.  This  was 
a  heart-breaking  nightmare  before  they  ran  their  first  suc 
cessful  bed  of  sow  and  pigs. 

The  mere  brick-making  at  the  beginning  proved  disheart- 
eningly  unsatisfactory.  And  when  they  had  a  nine-foot 
closed  blast-furnace  built  and  charged,  Hawthorne's  igno- 


412  EL   SUJtifiLEMO 

ranee  as  to  the  exact  appearances  which,  indicated  the  pre 
cise  moment  for  tapping  resulted  in  the  waste  of  many 
charges.  Twice  he  waited  too  long,  and  the  iron  cooled 
into  a  solid  lump,  to  extract  which  the  entire  furnace  had 
to  be  destroyed.  Twice  he  tapped  too  soon  and  ran  off  a 
useless  cascade  of  molten  cinder.  Slowly  he  recalled  the 
half-learned  lore  of  his  half-forgotten  apprenticeship;  re- 
learned  how  to  dam  the  tap-hole,  with  just  the  right  mix 
ture  of  clay  and  sand,  relearned  when  to  tap  it;  practi 
cally  rediscovered  for  himself,  so  imperfectly  had  he  ob 
served  it  in  his  heedless  boyhood,  how  and  where  to  make 
the  notch  for  the  escape  of  the  fluid  cinder  between  tap 
pings;  likewise  discovered  for  himself  how  to  adjust  the 
level  of  the  top  of  the  dam  to  the  tuyeres. 

His  first  good  pig  he  used  to  make  tuyeres  of  cast  iron, 
in  place  of  the  wrought-iron  tuyeres  he  had  perforce  begun 
with,  which  melted  off  at  the  nozzles  almost  as  if  they  had 
been  wood  and  combustible. 

After  that  his  troubles  were  over.  Borda  learned  how  to 
tap  a  furnace  the  first  time  he  watched  Hawthorne  do  it. 
Teaching  even  the  best  peon  was  very  slow,  for  they  all 
feared  the  torrent  of  molten  iron.  But  by  cajolery  and 
ridicule  Borda  managed  to  teach  one.  Then  two  more 
learned  rapidly. 

Hawthorne 's  face  was  then  set  for  Asuncion. 

' '  You  think  you  can  keep  the  work  up  alone  ? ' '  he  asked. 

"Of  a  surety,"  Borda  replied.  "I  understand  all  that 
is  required  of  me :  to  dig  more  sulphur  and  select  the  clean, 
square-sided  pieces;  to  add  to  our  two  and  a  half  arrobas 
of  saltpetre  all  I  can  safely  gather  and  conceal;  to  put 
aside  the  choicest  lengths  of  charcoal  and  keep  them  hid 
den  ;  to  produce  as  much  malleable  iron  as  I  can,  as  openly 
as  possible ;  to  run  off  pigs  in  such  a  manner  and  at  such 
times  that  I  can  secrete  five-sixths  of  all  I  cast  and  yet  make 
the  one-sixth  I  show  seem  to  account  for  all  our  ore,  char 
coal  and  labour.  I  can  keep  that  up  for  a  year. ' ' 

1 '  It  may  be  more  than  a  year  before  I  come  back, ' '  Haw 
thorne  admonished  him. 

"I  can  keep  it  up  for  three  years,"  Borda  asserted. 


TOBACCO  AND   IRON  413 


(4) 

Hawthorne  set  out  for  Asuncion  with  a  string  of  mules 
laden  with  bar-iron,  strap-iron,  wheel-tires,  outlined  horse 
shoes,  hammered  stirrups,  finished  spurs,  axle-rings,  hub- 
rings,  pole-straps,  ship-spikes,  builders '-nails,  horse-shoe 
nails,  harness-buckles,  and  other  such  forged  articles. 

The  Dictator  was  naturally  delighted,  and  asked  ques 
tions  in  such  a  flood,  so  acute  and  so  searching  that  Haw 
thorne  needed  all  his  alertness  to  keep  the  account  of  what 
had  occurred  as  prepared  and  rehearsed  by  himself  and 
Borda  separate  in  his  mind  from  what  had  actually  hap 
pened. 

Suddenly  Francia  changed  the  subject  and  queried: 

'  *  How  long  were  you  at  San  Bernardino  ? ' ' 

"When  Hawthorne  told  briefly  why  he  had  not  gone  there, 
he  knit  his  brows  and  remarked : 

"He  used  the  word  'conditions.'  That  may  mean  any 
thing,  or  nothing.  The  most  natural  conjecture  would  be 
that  Don  Toribio  has  lost  his  wits.  I  trust  such  is  not  the 
feet.'1 

He  gazed  up  at  the  stars  overhead  and  remarked : 

*  *  Don  Guillermo,  nothing  you  have  told  me  of  your  New 
England  impresses  me  more  than  the  smallpox  hospitals 
of  Rhode  Island.  The  idea  of  every  lad  and  lass  of  that 
state,  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  twenty,  bidding  fare 
well  to  home  and  family  and  friends,  journeying  cheerfully 
to  one  or  the  other  of  the  appointed  places,  there  under 
going  the  preliminary  dosing  and  the  inoculation  with  that 
terrible  disease,  stoically  enduring  it,  bearing  up  bravely 
in  spite  of  others'  deaths,  meeting  the  end  with  fortitude 
if  the  malady  prove  fatal. ' ' 

' '  When  I  left  New  England, ' '  Hawthorne  said,  ' '  another 
method  of  preventing  smallpox  was  being  introduced  and 
inoculation  was  becoming  less  universal.  They  were  talk 
ing  of  repealing  the  laws  making  it  compulsory." 

"That  has  nothing  to  do  with  what  I  am  thinking  of," 
Francia  said.  "What  strikes  my  imagination  is  the  thought 
of  the  convalescents  in  their  long  reclining  chairs  on  the 
porches,  patiently  gaining  strength  in  enforced  idleness 
chatting  with  each  other.  That  nearly  all  the  courtships 


4H  EL   SUPREMO 

of  the  country  should  occur  under  such  conditions  has  in 
it  something  tragic  and  pathetic.  I  think  often  of  the 
weak  and  resolute  brides  and  grooms,  newly  wedded  after 
their  incomplete  recovery,  setting  out  for  their  homes. 
What  appeals  to  me  is  the  idea  of  young  people  mating 
of  their  own  accord  and  to  please  themselves  instead  of 
at  the  behest  of  their  parents  as  generally  with  us. 

"  Marriage  for  mutual  desire  without  considerations  of 
wealth  or  family.  That  impresses  me/' 

He  stared  hard  at  the  candles  on  his  table,  threw  away 
his  cigar,  lit  a  fresh  cigar,  and  returned  to  the  subject  of 
iron. 

"Why  do  you  attempt  casting  only  at  Atira  and  not 
also  at  Caacupe?" 

"Red  haematite  ore,"  Hawthorne  said,  "I  have  found 
only  near  Atira.  The  brown  haematite  of  Caacupe,  which 
is  also  plentiful  near  Atira,  is  better  for  smelting  malleable 
iron.  But  I  never  heard  of  any  one  making  cast-iron  of 
brown  haematite.  I  am  sure  I  could  not  do  so. ' ' 

"How  about  the  ores  at  Caapucu  and  Ibieuy?"  the 
Dictator  queried. 

"All  brown  hematite  there,  all  that  I  found/'  Haw 
thorne  replied. 

'  *  Could  you  establish  furnaces  there  also  ? ' '  Prancia  en 
quired. 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  said;  "any  fool  can  learn  to 
manage  a  Catalan  bloomery.  With  two  foremen  at  Atira 
I  could  have  a  forge  going  at  Ibicuy  and  another  at  Caa 
pucu  within  two  months. ' ' 

' '  Will  you  set  about  it  at  once  ? ' '  Francia  enquired.  ' 1 1 
cannot  think  of  any  activity  of  yours  more  likely  to  benefit 
Paraguay  in  general  and  yourself  and  me  in  particular. ' ' 

"I  shall  do  so  if  you  insist,"  Hawthorne  rejoined,  "but 
my  thoughts  are  all  set  on  yerba.  What  you  called  beating 
the  bounds  of  Paraguay  is  now  uppermost  in  my  imagina 
tion.  Iron,  for  me,  is  a  means  towards  making  roasting- 
pans  for  i/er&a-plantations ;  j/erfeo-plantations  are  part  of 
a  scheme  for  increased  yerba-expo?t  and  for  foreign  trade. 
That  scheme  must  be  approached  in  one  of  two  different 
ways.  If  we  have  to  look  forward  to  Brazilian  competi 
tion,  the  plantations  are  all  important,  for  we  must  aim  at 
quality  of  export  to  hold  our  own  against  our  possible 


TOBACCO   AND    IRON  415 

competitors.  If  there  is  no  yerba  or  only  inferior  yerba  in 
Brazil,  we  can  let  the  idea  of  plantations  remain  a  mere 
germ  and  maintain  only  one  or  two  for  experiment,  relying 
wholly  on  gathering  wild  yerba.  To  know  which  method 
to  follow  I  must  beat  the  bounds  of  Paraguay,  as  you  called 
it.  Then  we  shall  know  whether  you  have  an  absolute 
world-monopoly  of  the  product  already  in  your  grasp,  or 
must  create  a  virtual  permanent  monopoly  by  producing 
yerba  of  a  quality  with  which  Brazil  could  never  hope  to 
compete." 

''Your  experience  at  the  yerbales  of  the  Ypane  Guazu 
has  not  daunted  you?"  Francia  queried. 

"Not  a  particle,"  Hawthorne  answered. 

"Remember,"  Francia  spoke  weightily,  "the  insects  will 
be  far  worse,  and  no  masks,  gloves  or  leggings  are  likely 
to  last  you  through  it  all.  You  came  to  Paraguay  in  June 
and  were  with  the  yerbateros  through  most  of  August,  our 
coolest  month.  You  found  that  hot.  You  will  start,  if  you 
start  now,  at  the  beginning  of  summer,  and  be  away  two 
summers.  The  heat  will  be  truly  terrific,  and  you  will  feel 
the  worst  of  it." 

' '  Heat  will  not  scare  me, ' '  Hawthorne  said,  ' '  nor  insects 
nor  Indians,  nor  any  risk  or  danger.  I  am  resolute  about 
going,  and  shall  begin  to  prepare  myself  at  once  if  you 
give  permission." 

Francia  reflected. 

1 '  If  you  are  so  determined, ' '  he  said, ' '  I  shall  not  oppose 
you.  I  shall  assign  Lopez  to  accompany  you  and  be  re 
sponsible  for  your  safety.  Six  soldiers  will  be  sufficient  to 
ensure  you  against  being  massacred  by  skulking  savages; 
more  would  be  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  feed.  I'll  pick 
out  soldiers  who  can  shoot  straight. 

"I  do  not  want  to  discourage  you,  and  I  shall  not  argue 
with  you.  But  the  matter  is  of  such  moment,  the  chances 
of  your  survival  are  so  small,  that  you  should  at  least  have 
forty-eight  hours  to  make  up  your  mind  and  think  it  over. 
Sup  with  me  again  day  after  to-morrow.  If  your  purpose 
is  unalterable,  I  shall  then  give  you  all  the  assistance  in 
my  power." 

"I  shall  not  flinch,"  Hawthorne  declared. 

"At  least,"  Francia  said,  "take  the  time  I  have  indi 
cated,  and  now,  let  us  have  our  game  of  chess." 


416  EL   SUPREMO 

CHAPTER  XXX 

THE   REVOLUTIONISTS 

(i) 

ON  visiting  the  prison,  Hawthorne  found  Cecilia  re 
signed  and  serene,  apparently  in  perfect  health,  and 
embroidering  as  if  she  had  no  concern  or  interest  besides. 

At  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop  he  learned  that  the  conspiracy 
had  been  widely  extended,  including  now  practically  every 
native  of  Spain  in  Paraguay  except  Dona  Juana  Isquibel. 
But  he  also  heard  that  murmurs  against  himself,  his  plans 
as  declared  to  the  conspirators,  his  activities  as  they  learned 
of  them  from  others,  were  heard  generally  among  the  new 
recruits  who  had  never  seen  him  and  even  among  some  of 
the  original  members.  Also  bickerings  had  arisen  among 
the  leaders  and  expressions  of  jealousy  among  those  who 
were  not  the  leaders. 

It  was  plain  that  a  meeting  of  the  conspirators  must  be 
held. 

"I  shall  need,"  Hawthorne  said  to  Cabanas,  "at  least 
six  days  to  prepare  for  my  long  journey.  It  may  turn  out 
that  even  two  weeks  will  prove  too  short  a  time.  We  can 
easily  arrange  for  a  full  meeting  here  some  warm  afternoon 
without  appearances  being  in  the  least  suspicious.  If  it 
cannot  be  arranged,  I  can  invent  some  pretexts  for  delay 
until  the  meeting  has  taken  place. " 

He  discovered  at  once  that  no  pretexts  need  be  invented. 
The  preparations  for  his  expedition  could  not  be  despatched 
rapidly. 

(2) 

On  the  momentous  afternoon  appointed  for  the  general 
meeting  of  the  conspirators  Hawthorne  found  himself  much 
disquieted  by  the  throng  assembled  at  Dr.  Bargas'  wine 
shop.  At  the  first  opportunity  he  said : 

1 '  I  think  we  are  exposing  ourselves  unnecessarily  and  to 
the  most  frightful  danger.  It  seems  to  me  that  such  a 
crowd  as  we  are  can  to  no  one  appear  an  accidental  gather 
ing  of  customers  and  idlers." 


THE   REVOLUTIONISTS  417 

"The  danger,"  Dr.  Bargas  retorted,  "should  be  no 
greater  than  on  at  least  four  days  each  week  throughout 
the  past  month  or  two.  The  popularity  of  my  wine  in 
creases  faster  than  our  members.  This  is  no  unusual 
crowd  for  my  premises.  But  we  have  provided  against  sus 
picion  by  arranging  for  a  constant  stream  of  arrivals  by 
ones  and  twos  and  departures  by  ones,  twos  and  threes,  at 
carefully  calculated,  irregular  intervals,  all  the  afternoon."1 

'  *  That  sounds  rational  and  ingenious, ' '  Hawthorne  said ; 
"but  still  this  assemblage  seems  to  me  too  large  for  safety. 
I  think  we  should  conclude  our  discussions  as  promptly  as 
possible  and  unostentatiously  disperse/' 

"Before  your  discussions  are  begun,"  spoke  a  voice,  "I 
ask  to  be  heard." 

The  assembly  found  itself  gazing  at  Don  Lampadio  Casal 
of  Limpio. 

"Senor  Don  Lampadio,"  Cabanas  addressed  him.  "We 
listen." 

"Don  Guillermo,"  Casal  said,  "has  called  attention  to 
the  dangers  to  which  you  expose  yourselves.  I  desire  ta 
point  out  another.  You  are  enticing  to  join  your  organisa 
tion  men  not  at  all  in  sympathy  with  your  aims.  Myself 
am  such  an  one.  You  all  know  me  too  well  to  fear  betrayal 
from  me.  I  shall  not  warn  our  Dictator  of  his  danger 
from  you,  if  you  are  a  danger  to  him.  I  shall  be  mute  and 
give  no  sign  by  word  or  otherwise.  But  I  should  never  have 
been  thought  of  as  a  possible  conspirator,  should  never 
have  been  approached,  far  less  lured  into  membership  and 
accepted  as  a  member.  I  am  not  entirely  satisfied  with 
Don  Gaspar's  rule  in  Paraguay,  but  what  government  ever 
entirely  satisfied  all  citizens?  I  am  well  content. 

"We  had  the  amazing  luck  to  win  our  independence  of 
Spain  and  of  Buenos  Aires  in  one  brief  campaign  in  which 
we  put  in  the  field  some  five  thousand  men  altogether 
against  fewer  than  a  thousand  invaders.  Our  adversaries 
were  overcome  by  their  own  rashness,  succumbing  to  the 
mere  pressure  of  numbers  all  about  them,  without  serious 
fighting.  There  fell  of  them  but  eleven  men  killed  and 
twelve  wounded,  of  whom  six  died.  Thirteen  more  met 
death  by  disease.  Barely  thirty  of  the  vanquished  perished 
in  hostilities  lasting  four  months.  On  our  side  there  fell 
about  ninety  killed  and  two  hundred  wounded.  The  deaths; 


418  EL   SUPREMO 

totalled  just  one  hundred  and  eighty-six.  At  the  price  of 
the  hlood  of  no  more  than  two  hundred  and  sixteen  men 
we  have  wrung  an  acknowledgement  of  our  independence 
from  the  government  of  Buenos  Aires.  As  the  ships  and 
troops  of  Spain  can  never  again  reach  us,  because  they  can 
never  subdue  the  Portenos,  we  are  free  forever  of  outside 
coercion.  Spain  will  acknowledge  our  independence  in 
due  course  and  the  rest  of  the  world  following  her.  We 
are  no  longer  troubled  by  external  influences. 

' '  Our  internal  troubles  have  been  trifling,  thanks  to  Doc 
tor  Don  Jose  Gaspar  Rodriguez  de  Francia,  against  whom 
you  plot.  You  call  him  tyrant,  despot,  oppressor ;  you  call 
him  bloody-minded  and  inflexible.  Yet  it  is  only  eleven 
years  since  Don  Lazaro  de  Bibera  died.  Have  you  forgot 
ten  him  so  soon  ?  Our  present  Dictator  has  been  Supreme 
officially  for  two  years,  actually  for  longer  than  three,  more 
or  less  in  power  for  five  years.  In  five  years  complete,  in- 
•cluding  those  who  fell  in  the  three  hours'  fighting  on  the 
famous  Twenty-ninth  of  September  in  the  attempted 
Counter-Revolution,  there  have  perished  in  Paraguay  by 
bullet  and  sabre  at  the  commands  of  the  government  not 
quite  a  hundred  persons.  I  do  not  reckon  in  this  enumera 
tion  ordinary  criminals.  I  am  speaking  of  retribution  for 
political  activities. 

"Don  Lazaro  was  Intendente  nine  years,  and  once  had 
two  hundred  and  sixty  men  shot  in  one  day.  Few  months 
passed  but  he  ordered  more  executions  than  our  oppressor, 
as  you  call  him,  has  authorised  in  five  years. 

"Don  Bernardo,  here  present,  had  but  four  men  put  to 
death  during  his  five  years  governorship.  But  he  was  an 
•exception.  As  compared  with  what  she  was  under  most 
Intendentes,  under  her  Dictator  Paraguay  is  infinitely  bet 
ter  off. 

"Infinitely  better  off  than  any  other  part  of  Spanish 
America  is  Paraguay  under  her  present  government.  You 
all  know  the  horrors  Artigas  keeps  up  throughout  the 
Banda  Oriental  and  Entre  Rios.  They  have  been  a  mild 
sample  of  what  is  going  on  from  Goajira  to  Valdivia. 
Everywhere  for  six  years  now  mobs,  riots,  insurrections, 
revolts,  assassinations,  executions,  battles,  sieges,  devasta 
tions,  and  massacres  have  been  desolating  and  ravaging  the 
^wretched  provinces.  Implacable  ferocity  has  been  the  order 


THE   REVOLUTIONISTS  419 

of  the  day.  For  instance,  at  La  Guaira,  not  three  years 
ago,  Don  Simon  Bolivar  perpetrated  the  wholesale  massacre 
of  eight  hundred  and  sixty-six  helpless  prisoners,  merely 
because  they  were  Spaniards.  In  a  day  he  spilt,  for  mere 
malignancy,  more  than  four  times  the  blood  poured  out  in 
our  entire  war  of  liberation. 

'  *  Compare  Doctor  Francia  with  the  ideal  ruler  and  you 
may  think  up  a  long  list  of  defects  and  short-comings. 
Compare  him  with  our  past  Intendentes  and  present-day 
rulers  of  other  parts  of  the  continent  and  he  shows  more 
than  favourably;  he  cuts  a  distinguished  figure.  Through 
a  period  throughout  which  all  the  rest  of  Spanish  America 
has  been  an  inferno  of  privation,  destitution,  devastation, 
mourning  and  death,  Paraguay  has  been  kept  by  his  astute 
ness  and  foresight  from  external  interference  and  internal 
disturbance.  I  am  for  him  and  so  are  most  men  like  me. 
So  small  a  minority  as  you  are  can  accomplish  nothing. 
I  have  now  given  you  warning  and  depart. " 

He  stood  up. 

"Senor  Don  Lampadio,"  spoke  Dr.  Bargas,  "you  must 
be  thirsty.  Let  me  offer  you  a  tankard  of  wine  before 
you  go." 

Casal  accepted  and  a  general  circulation  of  tankards 
followed. 

When  it  was  over  Cabanas  enquired: 

"Would  any  one  else  like  to  depart  with  Don  Lampadio? 
Have  we  here  another  new  member  who  joined  us  under 
a  misapprehension?" 

No  one  stirred  or  spoke. 

"Vaya  Usted  con  Dios,  Hermano!"  Dr.  Bargas  said  to 
Casal. 

When  he  was  gone  Cabanas  resumed: 

"Don  Guillermo  advises  despatch.  Don  Lampadio's  pro 
lixity  has  not  conduced  to  speed.  I  need  make  no  comment 
on  his  utterances,  as  he  expresses  what  we  all  know  are 
the  general  opinions  of  most  Creoles.  Does  any  one  wish 
to  remark  on  what  he  said?" 

No  one  spoke. 

"Then,"  said  Cabanas,  in  a  very  embarrassed  manner, 
1 '  I  have  to  announce  that  our  most  important  business  and 
my  most  pressing  duty  is  to  communicate  to  you,  Senor 
Don  Guillermo,  that  you  have  been  subjected  to  much 


420  EL   SUPREMO 

cavilling  in  the  informal  gatherings  which  knots  of  us  have 
formed  from  time  to  time  and  that  at  larger  meetings  you 
have  been  even  fiercely  assailed  and  vehemently  accused. 
It  would  cement  our  organisation  were  you  to  confute  the 
charges. ' ' 

"Willingly,"  Hawthorne  replied.  "Let  me  hear  the 
-charges.  Where  are  my  assailants  and  accusers?" 

" Those  who  carp  against  you/7  Cabanas  rejoined,  "have 
uniformly  spoken  only  after  a  pledge  that  their  identity 
should  be  kept  from  you  and  they  all  decline  to  face  you. ' ' 

"That,"  Hawthorne  smiled,  "seems  to  me  a  sufficient 
confutation  of  anything  they  may  have  said." 

"It  should  be,"  Cabanas  assented,  "but  I  foresee  that 
our  conspiracy  will  infallibly  suffer  betrayal,  fall  to  pieces 
by  internal  dissensions  or  become  impotent  unless  the 
charges  are  answered  by  yourself,  Senor  Don  Guillermo, 
in  person.  Don  Eustaquio,  Don  Hilarion,  Don  Cipriano, 
Don  Valeriano  and  I  myself  have  replied  to  them  with 
arguments  which  should  have  convinced  any  one,  but  which 
manifestly  had  no  effect.  I  ask  you,  Senor  Don  Guillermo, 
&s  a  favour  to  myself,  to  permit  me  to  state  their  insinua 
tions  against  you  and  to  reply  to  the  meeting  at  large." 

"A  request  from  you,  Seilor  Don  Atanacio,"  Hawthorne 
rejoined,  "no  one  could  well  refuse.  I  await  your  abstract 
of  these  mutterings  and  am  prepared  to  refute  them." 

' '  In  the  first  place, ' '  Cabanas  began, '  *  I  will  come  at  once 
to  strictures  based  on  appearances  very  much  against  you, 
the  misinterpretation  of  which  has  disturbed  all  of  us. 

"Your  vilifiers  point  out  that  you  led  us  to  form  this 
conspiracy  most  of  all  by  an  eloquent  expression  of  your 
conviction  that  the  troops  of  the  Dictator  could  not  resist 
in  the  field  a  resolute  body  of  patriots.  I  cannot  recollect 
.your  words,  nor  can  any  one,  but  you  somehow  conveyed 
to  us  your  belief  and  made  us  tingle  with  that  same  belief, 
that  we  would  be  a  body  of  gentlemen  skilled  in  the  use 
of  arms  and  on  fire  with  indignation  and  faith  in  the 
righteousness  of  our  cause,  facing  a  mob  of  louts,  clumsy 
with  their  guns,  without  practice  or  coherence,  utterly  de 
void  of  genuine  loyalty  for  their  leader. 

"The  more  we  think  this  over  the  less  true  it  seems  to 
liave  been  even  the  day  you  arrived  at  Asuncion,  and  the 
further  it  appears  from  the  fact  as  each  day  passes. 


THE   REVOLUTIONISTS  421 

"The  national  troops  appear  formidable,  and  are  becom 
ing  more  so.  And  the  point  your  traducers  insist  on  is 
that  you  represented  them  as  likely  to  prove  easy  to  over 
come,  when  you  had  yourself  brought  from  Buenos  Aires 
a  drill-master  to  make  them  efficient;  that  you  inveigled 
us  into  forming  this  organisation  by  arguing  that  the 
army  was  a  mere  show  while  at  the  same  time  putting 
into  the  tyrant's  hands  the  means  to  make  it  invin 
cible." 

' { Invincible ! ' '  Hawthorne  cried.  ' ' Nothing  is  invincible, 
except  heroes  determined  to  conquer.  I  have  fought  shoul 
der  to  shoulder  with  heroes.  I  was  one  of  the  four  hundred 
who  followed  Bolivar  over  the  sierra  from  Ocano  to  the 
relief  of  Pamplona.  We  were  caught  in  a  storm  in  the 
mountains,  lost  more  than  half  our  horses,  all  our  provi 
sions,  and  came  down  into  the  foothills  a  famished  and 
exhausted  band  of  scarecrows,  in  rags,  and  with  most  of 
our  powder  wet.  We  met  five  times  our  number  of  well-fed, 
well-equipped,  unwearied  royalists,  as  brave  men  as  ever 
came  out  of  Spain.  But  we  beat  them.  So  will  you  beat 
the  hirelings  of  the  Dictator  if  you  are  firm  and  resolute, 
If  you  are  determined  to  win  you  must  win.  Only  if  you 
anticipate  failure  will  you  fail.  The  despot's  troops  can  be 
made  invincible  against  you  only  by  your  thinking  them 
so.  And  you  will  not  think  them  so. 

"Come.  I  comprehend  the  feelings  of  those  whose  utter 
ances  Don  Atanacio  has  voiced.  They  adhered  to  our  con 
spiracy  anticipating  an  insurrection  against  forces  recruited 
by  conscription,  not  a  volunteer  among  them,  and  kept  to 
their  duties  and  discipline  by  martinet  methods.  They  see 
a  sort  of  unexpected  vigour  infused  into  these  troops  by 
Don  Beltran.  They  expected  to  find  opposed  to  them  sol 
diers  who  had  entered  the  army  under  compulsion  and 
had  no  better  drill  than  the  best  that  could  be  given  them 
by  a  scholar  who  had  never  been  in  a  battle,  a  skirmish,  or 
even  so  much  as  a  camp  of  war.  They  naturally  shrink 
at  the  idea  of  facing  troops  drilled  by  a  young  warrioi 
who  fought  against  Soult  and  Massena.  They  realise  the^ 
must  be  more  formidable  already,  and  steadily  becoming 
more  so. 

"Let  us  figure  them  as  formidable  as  possible,  as  per 
fectly  drilled  as  if  Don  Beltran  were  a  Murat,  a  Berthier 


422  EL   SUPREMO 

or  a  Davoust,  every  man  loyal  and  staunch,  what  would 
they  be  at  that  ? 

"You  know  how  they  are  enlisted.  "When  the  order  goes 
out  to  the  comandanies,  each  assembles  all  the  unmarried 
young  men  of  his  district,  the  visiting  inspector  looks  them 
over,  those  of  really  good  families  he  dismisses  as  a  matter 
of  custom,  without  question.  The  sons  of  the  poorer  hacen- 
dados  and  richer  chacareros  buy  themselves  off,  cash  down. 
Relations  of  the  curates  or  comandantes  are  let  go  from 
favouritism.  The  remainder  are  compelled  to  enter  the 
army,  driven  to  Asuncion  like  bullocks  and  herded  here 
under  penalty  of  death  if  they  desert.  Not  one  in  ten  has 
any  liking  for  barrack-life ;  fewer  put  any  heart  into  their 
drill  and  practice-evolutions.  Loyalty  to  the  Dictator  is 
enforced  by  severe  punishments  for  any  utterance  impugn 
ing  him.  But  it  is  all  a  sham.  Not  one  in  a  hundred  really 
likes  his  master.  They  fear  him  and  obey  him,  but  they  do 
not  love  him.  What  wonder  if  they  are  delighted  to  be 
drilled  by  a  handsome  young  cavalier  who  has  a  breezy 
manner,  a  pleasant  word  for  every  one,  and  a  way  of 
making  reviews  and  even  the  manual  of  arms  appear  a 
sort  of  game,  to  be  played  with  zest?  They  have  no  more 
active  and  vivid  loyalty  for  Don  Beltran  than  they  have  for 
Francia.  They  are  held  together  by  fear,  not  by  en 
thusiasm.  As  in  peace  so  will  it  be  if  they  are  called  on 
to  fight.  However  perfectly  drilled  they  may  be,  they 
will  be  men  with  no  common  aims,  no  stirring  motive  for 
cohesion.  You  will  be  men  fused  into  a  living  thunderbolt 
by  consciousness  of  the  wrongs  you  have  suffered,  by  real 
isation  of  all  you  have  at  stake.  Once  let  an  inkling  reach 
them  that  you  may  succeed  and  they  'd  rather  come  over  to 
your  side  and  help  abase  their  despot  than  aid  him  against 
you.  They  have  nothing  to  fight  for.  Whatever  happens, 
whoever  is  in  authority,  the  same  barrack-life  and  barrack- 
fare  for  them.  A  change  of  masters  might  be  an  agreeable 
novelty.  Put  yourselves  in  imagination  against  such  cor 
ralled  cattle;  you  Spanish  gentlemen  on  fire  for  the  cause 
of  your  God,  saints  and  religion  in  addition  to  your  homes, 
families  and  lives.  Can  you  doubt  but  that  you  must  win  ? '  * 

* '  Ah ! ' '  sighed  Padre  Melquiades  Cabellero,  '  *  you  have  a 
tongue.  You  almost  make  me  wish  I  were  a  soldier;  it  all 
seems  so  easy,  so  certain!" 


THE    REVOLUTIONISTS  423 


"All  very  fine,"  broke  in  Gamarra,  "but  Don  Guillermo 
has  not  said  one  word  on  the  main  point." 

"What  is  that,  Senor  Don  Rogelio?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

It  was  Guerreros  who  answered. 

"You  have  not  explained  at  all,  Senor  Don  Guillermo, 
he  said,  "your  having  yourself  brought  to  Asuncion  the 
man   whom   the   Dictator   is   employing   to   improve   his 

forces." 

"Oh!"  cried  Hawthorne.  "An  adversary  at  last  and 
in  the  open.  Good!  Senor  Don  Sinforiano,  the  insinua 
tion  is  absurd.  Beltran  left  Spain  with  the  definite  inten 
tion  of  returning  to  his  home,  as  was  most  natural.  We 
met  by  accident  in  Buenos  Aires.  I  had  returned  there 
from  Cuyo,  unwilling  to  continue  with  General  San  Martin 
because  of  his  merciless  executions  of  many  Spaniards,  as 
I  had  two  years  before  left  General  Bolivar  because  of  his 
massacre  of  the  prisoners  in  La  Guaira,  to  which  Don 
Lampadio  referred  a  while  ago.  I  had  resolved  to  come  to 
Paraguay  before  I  encountered  Beltran,  as  he  had  before 
knowing  me.  Neither  had  any  influence  on  the  other's 
coming.  It  was  a  chance  that  we  were  on  the  same 
ship.  Any  suspicion  of  me  on  that  account  is  moon 
shine.  Beltran  would  be  in  Asuncion  now  if  I  had  never 

"As  to  Francia's  employing  him  for  drill-master  and 
making  him  a  Colonel,  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  that 
either,  except  that  I  had  a  natural  friendship  with  Beltran 
and  wanted  the  Dictator  to  like  him  and  him  to  prosper 
in  his  home-country  under  its  new  government.  I  did  not 
foresee  the  awkward  situation  I  am  put  in.  I  like  Beltran. 
I  hate  the  idea  of  his  being  in  the  service  of  a  government 
I  am  plotting  to  overthrow.  I  more  than  like  him ;  I  love 
him,  and  I  shrink  from  the  thought  of  facing  him  in  battle 
or  of  causing  his  death  in  war.  But  it  seems  to  me  that 
when  a  man  has  marked  out  for  himself  a  course  of  action 
according  to  his  conception  of  his  duty  he  ought  not  to 
hesitate  over  the  consequences  of  small  blunders  he  has 
made  by  the  way  nor  swerve  because  of  possible  or  probable 
harm  to  individuals  he  loves. 

"As  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  hold  to  my  purposes  as  i: 
Beltran  had  never  existed.  His  efficiency  as  a  drill-master, 
his  personal  charm  for  the  men  he  commands,  do  not  daunt 


424  EL   SUPREMO 

me  a  particle.  Suppose  he  has  made  them  ten  times  as 
good  soldiers  and  a  hundred  times  as  loyal  as  they  were. 
Suppose  him  likely  to  prove  an  inspired  leader  in  the  field. 
I  shall  join  you  in  raising  the  standard  of  revolt  as  con 
fidently  as  if  he  were  not  to  be  with  the  government  forces. 
Suppose  him  certain  to  fall  in  battle,  even  by  my  hand. 
I  shall  not  flinch.  No  such  considerations  can  dishearten 
or  deter  me. 

' 'But  unless  you  this  instant  and  unanimously  declare 
your  confidence  in  me  and  your  complete  and  final  rejec 
tion  of  all  these  nursery  bogey-tales  and  all  they  imply,  I 
leave  you  here  and  now  and  henceforth  devote  myself  not 
to  revolutionising,  but  to  mere  commercial  yerbfr  culture 
and  iron-smelting.  I  must  hear  from  you  instantly,  gentle 
men,  and  unequivocally,  if  I  am  to  continue  your  con- 
federate." 

When  he  paused  there  was  a  general  outburst  of  expres 
sions  of  confidence  and  admiration  in  which  even  Gamarra 
joined.  It  was  a  rousing  ovation  that  would  have  satisfied 
a  colder-blooded  man  than  Hawthorne.  When  the  re 
sultant  enthusiasm  had  somewhat  quieted,  Cabanas  ad 
dressed  the  meeting: 

"Gentlemen,  I  do  not  believe  Don  Beltran  or  any  man 
could  inspire  in  his  troops  the  zeal  Don  Guillermo  arouses 
in  us.  After  what  he  has  said,  what  you  have  heard,  it 
would  be  childish  and  will  be  unnecessary  to  recur  to  the 
doubts  which  have  arisen  on  account  of  his  intimacy  with 
the  Dictator,  his  many  evenings  in  his  company,  the  public 
favours  he  has  received.  We  see  in  all  these  the  natural 
workings  of  Don  Guillermo 's  plans.  He  has  done  so  far 
only  what  he  proposed  to  do.  All  doubts  on  these  or  other 
points  have  now  vanished." 

Which  speech  was  met  with  general  applause  and  ap 
proval. 

The  noise  was  hushed  by  Parlett  from  outside  whistling 
his  warning.  To  a  gathering  of  detached  idlers,  chatting 
and  sipping,  there  entered  two  Payagua  Indians,  asking 
for  Don  Cipriano  Domeque.  From  him  each  wanted  a 
peso  of  silver  in  exchange  for  a  bodkin-shaped  labret  offered 
as  a  pledge. 

Gravely  he  handed  them  the  coins,  gravely  they  handed 
him  their  wives'  ornaments,  gravely  they  departed,  their 


THE   REVOLUTIONISTS  425 

odour  lingering  throughout  the  wine-shop  after  they  were 
gone. 

Don  Cipriano  explained. 

"They  are  always  running  to  me  for  cash  when  they 
need  it,  generally  for  fines  when  one  of  the  tribe  is  arrested. 
They  always  return  and  redeem  their  pledges,  after  how 
ever  long  an  interval.  I  have  acted  as  their  banker  now 
for  some  years,  in  fact  ever  since  Domingo  left  Asuncion 
for  Buenos  Aires.  Always  before  that  he  acted  as  tribal 
adviser,  pawnbroker  and  banker  for  the  whole  clan  of 
them.  It  is  inconvenient,  being  interrupted  this  way,  but 
no  one  can  put  off  or  deny  a  Payagua  client.  They  must 
have  their  way  and  at  once." 

After  the  Payaguas  were  gone  Cabanas  again  spoke  and 
to  Hawthorne. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "your  directness  and 
sincerity  have  abolished  in  any  who  may  have  partially 
entertained  them  any  traces  of  doubts  of  your  character 
and  intentions.  Forgive  me  if  I  have  a  doubt,  not  as  to 
your  purpose,  but  on  a  subtler  point.  May  I  express  it  and 
have  the  pleasure  of  hearing  you  annihilate  it?" 

" Certainly, "  said  Hawthorne.  "An  expression  of  a 
doubt  from  you,  Sefior  Don  Atanacio,  is  a  compliment  in 
view  of  your  faith  in  me  in  general." 

' '  My  doubt  is  this, ' '  Cabanas  very  slowly  uttered.  ' '  The 
man  is  a  wizard,  a  great  ruler  and  swayer  of  men.  You 
have  been  much  and  familiarly  in  his  company.  Now, 
although  you  design  to  overthrow  his  despotism,  though  all 
your  associations  with  him  have  been  planned  for  that  end, 
are  you  not  perhaps,  perhaps  unconsciously,  falling  under 
the  spell  of  his  personality  ?  Are  you  not,  without  realising 
it,  coming  to  think  of  his  government  as  do  Don  Lampadio 
and  his  kind,  and  coming  to  feel  for  the  man  himself,  with 
out  your  suspecting  it,  a  genuine  admiration  and  an  in 
creasing  friendliness  ?  Have  you  not  grown  to  esteem  him, 
to  like  him,  almost  to  love  him?  Does  not  this  blur  and 
will  not  this  blunt  your  conscientious  hostility?" 

"Very  subtly  put,  Senor  Don  Atanacio,"  Hawthorne  re 
joined,  "and  not  by  any  means  wide  of  the  mark.  You  are 
right  and  you  are  wrong.  I  have  come  to  revere  him  as 
a  man  and  enjoy  him  as  a  companion.  He  is  wonderful, 
and  is  very  good  company  and  very  likable.  He  is  a  most 


426  EL   SUPREMO 

competent  ruler  were  it  not  for  his  capricious  harshness. 

"I  can  answer  your  olid  of  questions  better  informally 
than  formally. 

''First  of  all,  I  can  answer  one  or  two  and  with  them 
some  of  Don  Lampadio's  utterances.  No  government,  in 
my  opinion,  is  so  good  that  one  must  give  up  all  idea  of 
abolishing  it,  if  necessary,  and  of  establishing  in  its  place 
a  better,  if  advisable.  I  hold  that  no  man,  however  com 
petent,  should  rule  a  people  without  regard  for  all  classes 
of  citizens.  He  ignores  all  claims  of  all  old  Spaniards  and 
treats  them  all  alike  as  having  no  rights.  His  general 
competence  cannot  excuse  this  in  my  eyes.  He  means  to 
deal  out  even  justice  to  all  alike,  whereas  in  effect  he  not 
only  uniformly  disfavours  the  old  Spaniards,  but  acts  on 
whim  and  impulse  rather  than  by  system.  I  am  not  shaken 
in  my  belief  that  we  should,  and  in  my  faith  that  we  can, 
replace  his  tyranny  by  the  rule  of  law  and  equity. 

"  As  to  his  individuality  I  confess  that  I  regret  the  neces 
sity  of  abasing  him,  perhaps  exiling  him,  possibly  causing 
his  death  in  battle.  But  as  I  said  of  my  love  for  Beltran, 
I  think  all  such  feelings  should  be  remorselessly  set  aside 
for  higher  considerations.  Personal  dislikes  or  likes,  hate 
or  love  should  not  have  play  at  all  where  the  welfare  of 
a  whole  nation  is  at  stake." 

Cabanas  bowed. 

' '  Gentlemen, ' '  he  said,  l '  I  take  it  that  Don  Guillermo  is 
our  confederate  and  we  his,  heart  and  soul. ' ' 

When  the  expressions  of  approval  had  abated  Hawthorne 
spoke. 

"Have  we  other  business?"  he  asked.  "If  not,  we 
should  now  disperse." 

' '  Before  we  disperse, ' '  Don  Larios  Galvan  said, ' '  it  seems 
to  me  we  should  formally  express  our  approval  of  Don 
Guillermo 's  plans  and  pledge  ourselves  to  support  our 
chosen  leaders.  At  least,  that  is  how  it  seems  to  me  as  a 
lawyer,  looking  forward  to  Don  Guillermo 's  proposed  long 
and  uncertain  period  of  absence  and  the  probable  necessity 
for  prompt  action  on  his  return." 

"At  this  point,"  spoke  Don  Mauricio  Zelaya,  "I  wish  to 
make  myself  heard." 

When  all  had  faced  him,  he  continued : 

' '  I  am  a  man  of  commerce ;  not  a  man  of  war.    Perhaps  I 


THE   REVOLUTIONISTS  427 

miss  the  verity.  But  for  the  life  of  me  I  cannot  perceive 
the  sense  of  choosing  Atira  as  the  place  to  rally  and  raise 
the  standard  of  revolt.  It  has  iron  and  other  materials ;  it 
has  rich  estancias  about  it  and  countless  horses  and  cattle. 
But  beyond  that  district  there  are  only  the  forests  and 
yerbales  about  Curuguatay,  Forquilha  and  Voquita;  only 
the  wildernesses  of  the  Brazilian  frontier.  There  is  no 
where  to  retreat  to  if  we  are  temporarily  worsted ;  no  escape 
if  we  are  finally  beaten;  no  possibility  of  increasing  our 
following  from  behind  us  or  of  renewing  our  equipment  at 
need.  "We  place  all  Paraguay  between  us  and  the  rest  of 
the  world  and  pen  ourselves  up  between  the  tyrant's  forces 
and  the  Brazilian  wilds. 

"Why  not  rally  at  Neembucu?  There  we  should  have 
the  river  open  to  us  and  access  to  Corrientes  easy  if  we 
were  defeated.  Also  supplies  and  munitions  could  come 
to  us  by  water.  Perriehon/Artigas  and  Candioti  hate  the 
despot  so  fiercely  that  they  would  send  us  men  even,  and 
permit  not  only  stores  and  clothing  but  also  sabres,  powder, 
guns  and  cannon,  which  they  sedulously  blockade  now,  to 
reach  us  in  the  hope  of  our  succeeding;  they  would  assist 
us  to  the  extent  of  their  ability.  Why  not  pitch  on  Neem 
bucu  instead  of  Atira?" 

"Don  Joaquin  Lopez, "  Zevallos  cut  in,  "is  a  'why  not' 
very  large  indeed." 

"Joaquin/'  said  Yegros,  "must  be  disaffected.  Every 
body  knows  Francia  was  jealous  of  him  and  sent  him  away 
on  that  account.  He  must  know  it.  And  anyhow,  no  one 
could  help  being  displeased  at  having  to  exchange  Asuncion 
for  Neembucu." 

"I  think,"  Guerreros  addad,  "that  I  could  persuade 
Joaquin  to  join  us." 

' '  How  ? ' '  queried  Don  Hilarion  Decoud.  l '  If  you  asked 
for  a  passport  to  Neembucu  you  'd  be  clapped  in  the  cuartel, 
If  you  wrote  to  him,  your  letters  would  be  intercepted ;  if 
you  set  out  without  a  passport  you'd  be  arrested;  in  either 
case  you'd  be  shot." 

"And  suppose  you  could  reach  him,  Sinforiano,"  Ca 
banas  mildly  added, l '  if  you  fail  to  convince  him  you  betray 
us  all;  if  you  succeed  you  have  merely  transferred  to 
Neembucu,  where  it  is  of  infinitely  less  effect,  your  favourite 
plan  of  tampering  with  troops  and  seizing  a  barrack.  If 


EL   SUPREMO 

we  were  determined  to  try  that,  we'd  try  it  nearer  home; 
and  we  are  determined  not  to  try  it  at  all.  Mallada  was 
example  enough." 

' '  Nor, ' '  said  Caballero, ' '  could  you  wheedle  Joaquin.  He 
has  a  streak  of  rough  simplicity  in  him  and  would  likely 
prove  blunt  and  loyal. ' ' 

"Anyhow,"  Somellera  declared,  "suppose  him  on  our 
side  and  all  of  us  at  Neembucu ;  we  could  accomplish  noth 
ing  except  by  creating  a  fleet,  coming  up  the  river  and 
landing  somewhere  above  Angostura.  Law  is  my  vocation, 
not  soldiering.  But  I  perceive  the  military  qualities  of 
the  country  about  Neembucu,  and  all  the  better  since  I  had 
never  heard,  read  or  dreamt  of  such  conditions.  I  came 
here  almost  direct  from  Spain,  young  and  enthusiastic, 
elated  at  being  appointed  secretary  to  an  Intendente.  Jour 
neying  from  Buenos  Aires  to  Corrientes  on  horseback,  in 
the  saddle  each  day  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  with  the  briefest 
possible  pauses  while  changing  mounts  at  the  post-houses, 
with  no  interrupting  except  canoeing  across  the  river  from- 
Santa  Fe  to  the  Bajada,  I  completed  the  two  hundred  and 
seventy-three  leagues  in  eleven  days.  To  me  it  was  all 
one  glorious  gallop.  The  weather  had  been  superb;  clear, 
breezy,  and  not  very  hot.  I  was  exhilarated,  unwearied  and 
on  fire  to  reach  Asuncion.  I  barely  paused  at  Corrientes, 
crossed  the  Parana  at  Paso  del  Bey,  and  reached  Ycare. 
From  there  I  had  the  choice  of  two  routes.  I  was  urged 
to  travel  by  San  Miguel,  Caapucu,  Topabi  and  Carapegua 
on  the  plea  that  although  the  circuit  amounted  to  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  leagues,  the  roads  were  good.  But,  when 
I  heard  that  the  alternative  route  by  Herradura,  Sarigita 
and  Palmas  was  more  direct  and  measured  but  eighty-five 
leagues,  I  refused  to  listen  to  warnings  about  marshes, 
swamps  and  inundations,  and  thought  only  of  saving  forty- 
five  leagues.  Boy-like,  I  chose  the  shorter  route.  I  acquired 
then  some  experiences  at  crossing  pools,  ponds,  rivulets, 
streams,  rivers  and  lakes;  sometimes  four  each  league  all 
day  long.  I  learnt  the  provincial  meaning  of  the  word 
pelota  when  my  man-servant  showed  me  how  he  took  a  bull- 
hide,  gathered  up  and  fastened  the  corners,  placed  all  my 
effects  in  it,  and  me  crouching  among  them,  the  water  lap 
ping  a  finger-breadth  below  the  edges  all  round,  while  he 
swam  the  obstacle,  rope  in  teeth,  towing  me  and  my  goods 


THE   REVOLUTIONISTS  429 

in  the  pelota,  I  quaking  all  the  way  lest  the  bridles  of  our 
horses  swimming  behind  should  tighten  too  much  from  my 
hand  against  the  rim  of  the  pelota  and  swamp  the  whole 
crazy  contrivance.  It  was  that  over  and  over  all  day  long 
all  the  way  from  Neembucu  through  Herradura  to  Palmas. 

"From  that  I  know  the  military  possibilities  of  that 
neighbourhood.  Once  in  possession  of  Neembucu  we  could 
certainly  hold  it,  but  we  could  never  hope  to  advance  be 
yond  whatever  point  in  the  marsh-country  might  happen  to 
be  the  despot's  nearest  strong  outpost  after  he  put  his 
troops  in  motion  towards  us.  It  would  be  a  deadlock  in 
which  time  would  help  him  and  harm  us.  We  should  cer 
tainly  lose  in  the  end." 

"You  are  as  right  as  if  you  had  been  bred  in  camps," 
Caballero  said.  "If  the  idea  were  to  seize  a  defensible 
point  and  hold  it  until  the  tyrant  dies  of  old  age  Neembucu 
would  be  ideal.  But  Don  Guillermo's  plan,  if  I  compre 
hend  it  rightly,  certainly  as  we  military  men  of  this  or 
ganisation  have  worked  it  out,  contemplates  a  steady,  even 
a  rapid  advance  on  the  city.  We  could  not  advance  at  all 
from  Neembucu  farther  than  wherever  the  two  armies  came 
into  touch.  There  we'd  stick  forever.  Any  small  force 
<2ould  hold  any  position  in  the  marsh  country  against  odds 
even  incredible.  There  are  two  or  three  places  on  the 
river-bank  between  Curupaiti  and  Neembucu,  any  one  of 
which  a  thousand  resolute  men  with  provisions  and  a  few 
cannon  could  hold  against  a  hundred  times  their  numbers 
for  two  years.  Humaita  for  instance.  There  are  such 
places  all  through  the  marsh-country.  We  cannot  consider 
Neembucu." 

Then  Don  Bernardo  spoke  impressively: 

"Nor  could  we  consider  Don  Joaquin.  He  is  a  forceful 
and  able  man.  As  our  ally  he  would  soon  make  himself 
our  leader,  and  if  successful  we  should  be  making  him  Dic 
tator  instead  of  Francia.  In  place  of  a  despot  learned, 
wise  and  well-meaning  we  should  have  one  ignorant  and 
self-indulgent.  You  all  know  the  Lopez  temperament,  the 
Lopez  character.  The  whole  family  is  alike ;  Don  Joaquin 
is  perhaps  the  most  decent  of  the  clan;  but  imagine  him 
Dictator.  What  household  would  feel  safe?  We  can  say 
much  against  our  terrible  doctor,  but  no  family  in  Para 
guay  mourns  for  any  one  of  its  women  because  of  him ;  ho 


430  EL   SUPREMO 

has  broken  up  no  home,  torn  no  unwilling  wife  from  her 
infuriated  husband,  nor  any  daughter  from  her  helpless 
parents.  Men  whisper  insinuations  about  his  past  life, 
but  no  human  being  has  suffered  anything  from  any  liber 
tinism  of  his.  He  has  displayed  as  little  of  that  quality  as 
of  avarice.  Who  could  glut  a  Lopez  with  women  or  gold? 
No,  we  cannot  consider  Neembucu." 

"I  am  convinced,"  Don  Mauricio  admitted. 

"But  let  me  add  a  word  in  favour  of  Atira,"  put  in 
Hawthorne.  "It  is  behind  the  natural  defence  of  Lake 
Ipacaray.  Its  location  gives  us  a  natural  military  advan 
tage  on  that  account  and  still  more  because  no  adversary 
could  tell  whether  we  meant  to  advance  round  the  lower  or 
upper  end  of  the  lake.  Whichever  way  we  choose  we  have 
a  natural  defence  line,  the  Rio  Salado  below,  Arroya 
Pirayu  above.  With  any  sort  of  insight  our  leaders  ought 
to  befool  our  opponents  and  hold  them  at  one  end  of  the 
lake  while  we  turn  the  other  and  take  them  in  flank  or 
rear." 

' '  It  sounds  always  easy  when  you  talk,  Senor  Don  Guil- 
lenno,"  Caballero  said.  "I  see  myself  already  outwitting 
the  Dictator  and  Beltran  and  entering  the  city  in  triumph. ' ' 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

CANOES 
(1) 

FACING  Prancia  across  the  cleared  dining  table  under 
the  orange  trees  in  the  garden  by  the  bank  of  the  inlet, 
Hawthorne  smoked  and  listened. 

Francia  was  very  deliberate  and  careful,  stopping  often 
to  reflect  and  pausing  now  and  then  to  choose  a  word. 

He  said: 

'  *  You  will  follow  the  river  to  the  ruins  of  old  Fort  Bour 
bon,  on  the  Cl.aeo  side.  The  place,  I  am  told,  is  easily  rec 
ognised.  About  half  a  league  below  the  ruins  of  the  fort 
is  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Blanco.  Only  by  its  position  in 
relation  to  Fort  1 >  vurbon  can  you  identify  the  mouth  of  this 
river,  which,  in  r».-  speet  to  width,  colour,  current,  adjacent 


CANOES  431 

racks  &nd  predominant  vegetation,  is  indistingnisliable 
from  the  outfall  of  the  Tepoty,  Guaicuru,  Tenery,  and 
Nabilenque.  If  yon  choose  to  continue  northward  and  ex 
plore  the  Nabilenque,  the  Mamboy,  or  any  other  of  the 
small  tributaries  on  the  east  bank,  that  is  your  affair.  The 
Rio  Blanco  is  the  boundary  between  Paraguay  and  Brazil, 
as  determined  by  Don  Felix  de  Azara. 

"You  will  then  attempt  to  follow  the  course  of  the  Rio 
Blanco  as  far  as  it  can  be  navigated.  The  conveyance  of 
your  horses  and  recados  in  canoes  will  give  you  enough 
trouble.  Real  trouble  will  commence  when  you  can  navi 
gate  the  Rio  Blanco  no  farther.  You  must  then  thread, 
worm,  force,  hack  your  way  through  the  matted  forests  to 
the  foothills  of  the  Sierra  de  Amambahay.  If  reports  are 
trustworthy  you  will  have  less  exertion  in  climbing  and 
crossing  the  Sierra  than  in  thridding  the  forests.  Once 
across  it,  you  must  find  the  headwaters  of  the  Ivinheyma. 
The  chief  difficulty  will  be  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
upper  tributaries  of  the  Mbotetey  and  Anhanduhy,  both  of 
which  flow  into  the  Rio  Pardo,  an  upper  affluent  of  the 
Parana.  You  might,  of  course,  follow  either  of  them  in 
stead  of  the  Ivinheyma,  and  judge  of  the  northeastern  ex 
tent  of  yerbales  from  conditions  observed  along  their  banks. 
But  the  Ivinheyma  is  the  boundary. 

"Once  on  the  Ivinheyma,  your  Payaguas  have  only  to 
construct  balsas  and  float  you  down  to  the  Parana  and  on 
down  the  Parana.  If  you  have  any  energy  and  enthusiasm 
left  by  that  time,  you  can  ascend  and  explore  each  tribu 
tary  whose  mouth  you  reach.  Be  particularly  wary  on  the 
Gatemy;  I  am  told  that  in  its  defile  and  the  ravines  of  its 
tributaries  there  lurk  still  some  remnants  of  the  Tobas. 
They  never  alarm  Forquilha,  but  between  there  and  the 
Parana  no  one  dares  to  venture.  At  the  Salto  Grande  you 
will  be  confronted  with  more  than  a  dilemma. 

1 '  You  cannot  sail  on  down  the  gorge ;  the  risk  of  an  up 
set  is  so  great  that  one  might  speak  of  the  certainty  of  cap- 
sising  many  times.  The  soldiers  cannot  hazard  such  dan 
gers,  still  less  can  you. 

' '  The  attempt  to  pass  on  down  the  river  near  either  bank 
is  equally  unthinkable.  On  both  sides  of  the  gorge  is  a 
succession  of  deep,  narrow,  precipitous  glens  or  ravines, 
close  together,  and  overgrown  along  their  beds,  on  their 


432  EL   SUPREMO 

banks  and  on  the  broken  country  between  them,  with  tan 
gled,  impenetrable,  thorny  forests,  possibly  harbouring 
remnants  of  the  Tpbas  or  of  their  man-eating  kindred.  The 
Jesuits  in  1632,  in  their  flight  from  upper  Loreto  and 
Upper  Sant  Ignacio  in  Guajrra,  lost  a  full  third  of  their 
twelve  thousand  Christianised  Indians  in  their  passage 
through  the  obstacles  along  the  east  bank. 

"It  is  impossible  for  your  Payaguas  to  accompany  you 
through  the  parched  savannas  of  Guayra,  beyond  the  east 
ern  limit  of  the  broken  country  and  river-gorges.  A 
Payagua  cannot  learn  to  ride  a  horse,  except  for  short  dis 
tances  at  slow  paces;  and,  while  a  Payagua  can  run  by  a 
horse  all  day  and  never  tire,  and  repeat  it  day  after  day, 
he  must  have  plenty  of  water. 

" Therefore,  the  attempt  at  passing  down  either  bank 
being  equally  impracticable  for  all,  the  wide  circuit  through 
Guayra  impossible  for  them,  the  running  of  the  rapids  too 
rash  for  you,  you  must  separate  from  your  Payaguas  above 
the  Salto  Grande  and  leave  them  to  shift  for  themselves. 
You  need  not  worry  about  them.  If  some  should  be  killed 
by  the  Tobas,  perish  of  exposure,  or  drown,  who  would 
care  ?  Payaguas  are  plentiful,  and  too  plentiful.  But  the 
chances  of  ^their  losing  even  one  of  their  number  are  small. 
A  Payagua  has  a  wholesome  dread  of  Guaycarus,  is  wary 
and  practically  amphibious.  There  are  no  better  swimmers 
on  earth,  and  a  Payagua  can  sleep  naked  on  a  spray- 
drenched  rock  and  wake  supple  and  lively,  thrives  on  raw 
fish,  and  would  regard  a  week  or  two  of  battling  with  cat 
aracts,  all  unremitting  toil  and  incessant  sousings,  as  a 
pleasant  diversion.  You'll  find  all  your  Payaguas  fat, 
sleek  and  without  notable  bruises,  with  all  their  canoes,  or 
new  ones  to  make  up  the  tale  of  balsas,  comfortably  en 
camped  at  the  confluence  of  the  Curitiba  with  the  Parana. 
You  may  dismiss  them  from  your  mind  altogether  and  feel 
no  concern. 

''For  yoLirselves,  Lopez  ought  for  that  part  of  the  expe 
dition  to  be  a  most  competent  reliance.  He  understands  all 
the  devices  by  which  men  and  horses  can  be  kept  fit  in  any 
sort  of  country.  And  you  are  likely  to  find  many  difficul 
ties,  only  less  insuperable  than  those  of  the  gorge  or  its 
vicinity.  As  the  gorge  is  thirty-three  leagues  of  cataracts 
and  rapids  and  as  you  must  make  a  wide  cast  to  leave 


CANOES 


433 


well  en  your  right  the  minor  gorges  of  the  countless  little 
tributaries,  you  will  have  to  ride  a  full  hundred 
leagues." 

"Three  hundred  miles!"  Hawthorne  meditated. 

"Three  hundred  of  your  miles,"  Francia  confirmed  him, 
"and  I  cannot  prophesy  just  what  sort  of  miles.  The  re 
ports  conflict.  Some  tell  of  the  Sierra  de  Maracayu  con 
tinuing  eastward  between  the  Pequery  and  the  Taquary, 
according  to  Don  Felix  de  Azara's  report.  Others  declare 
that  the  continuation  of  the  sierra  between  those  tribu 
taries  is  merely  a  range  of  low,  rolling  hills,  not  at  all 
mountainous.  Others  yet  maintain  that  from  the  Pequery 
to  the  Taquary  is  all  level  savannas. 

"However  that  may  be,  you  will  certainly  have  to  cross 
the  beds  of  many  small  rivers  in  the  course  of  your  dash 
and  will  be  lucky  if  you  find  any  not  utterly  dry.  Death 
by  thirst  will  be  a  real  danger,  for  you  will  not  be  able  to 
ride  that  hundred  leagues  at  any  such  rate  as  one  rides,  for 
instance,  the  hundred  and  thirteen  leagues  from  Buenos 
Aires  to  Santa  Fe,  which  travellers  complete  in  six  days 
or  even  five,  and  the  couriers  in  three  days  and  a  half. 
You  will  find  no  towns,  not  even  such  little  towns  as  San 
Pedro,  San  Nicolas  and  Rosario ;  no  villages,  not  even  such 
miserable  villages  as  Areco  and  Arecife,  not  a  post-house, 
not  even  such  wretched  post-huts  as  relieve  the  journey 
from  Santa  Fe  to  Buenos  Aires.  You  will  come  to  regard 
a  mud-floored,  mud-walled,  half-thatched  post-hut  with  its 
hovel  out-kitchen,  dirty  children,  pigs  and  chickens,  and 
crazy  horse-corral,  as  a  palace ;  would  hail  the  sight  of  one 
as  a  taste  of  luxury.  You  may  find  human  habitations ;  if 
so,  they  will  likely  be  worse. 

"And  there  lies  your  chief  danger. 

"Don  Felix  de  Azara  had  no  difficulties  in  Guayra,  and 
naturally.  He  held  a  commission  from  each  King  and  had 
a  guard  of  two  companies  of  soldiers,  one  Portuguese  and 
the  other  Spanish.  They  smoothed  over  all  obstacles.  You 
must  chance  very  unsettled  conditions. 

"The  slave-raids  of  the  Mamelucos  ceased  fully  a  hun 
dred  and  fifty  years  ago;  because,  after  the  Jesuits  were 
driven  out  and  the  fragments  of  aboriginal  tribes  remain 
ing  completely  exterminated,  there  were  no  more  natives, 
converted  or  heathen,  to  enslave.  The  Paulistas  had  made 


434  EL   SUPREMO 

Guayra  a  desert  lonelier  than  the  Gran  Chaco.  It  was 
emptier  of  human  life  than  any  part  of  the  continent. 

* '  After  that  time  occasional  pioneers  were  attracted  into 
it  from  the  adjacent  fringes  of  settlements ;  some  from  San 
Paulo  or  Santa  Catarina  in  Brazil,  others  from  upper  Mis- 
siones.  From  the  first  encounters  between  these  two  trick 
les  of  settlers  Guayra  has  been  the  scene  of  a  strange  sort 
of  strife,  that  is,  for  more  than  a  hundred  j^ears.  It  is  not 
war,  not  even  such  a  squalid  semblance  of  war  as  Artigas 
has  kept  up  in  the  Banda  Oriental  of  late.  But  it  is  al 
ways  fighting,  or  the  likelihood  of  bloodshed. 

' '  The  grim,  isolated  Gauchos  of  the  interior  savannas  are 
boorish  and  sanguinary  folk,  even  among  blood-kinsmen. 
Brawls  and  murders  are  frequent.  Every  man  is  on  his 
guard  against  any  stranger.  Yet,  if  both  speak  the  same 
language  they  likely  pass  each  other  by  with  mere  surly 
gruffness.  But  if  one  speaks  Portuguese  and  the  other 
Spanish,  every  encounter  is  a  duel  to  the  death,  and  if  any 
household  gets  wind  of  a  homestead  of  the  other  stock 
within  ten  leagues,  they  plan  a  stealthy  approach  and  a 
night  attack,  ending  in  ruthless  massacre  and  total  exter 
mination. 

^  "So  life  has  gone  on  in  Guayra,  a  life  of  isolated  fami 
lies  each  fending  for  itself  with  terrific  savagery,  little 
mitigated  by  the  few  missionary  priests  who  have  pene 
trated  that  remote  district.  It  has  gone  on  with  variations 
of  failure  and  success,  with  temporary  advantage  on 
the  side  now  of  the  Spanish  squatters,  now  on  that  of 
the  Portuguese,  but  without  any  organised  effort  on  either 
side. 

'  *  But  of  late,  since  the  revolution,  rumours  have  reached 
Paraguay  of  increased  activity  among  the  Brazilians  and 
of  massacres  of  the  Spaniards  recalling  the  exploits  of  the 
Paulists  against  the  Jesuits,  so  that  the  name  'Mamelucos' 
is  again  applied  to  parties  of  Brazilians  scouring  the  prov 
ince  and  slaughtering  all  who  speak  the  other  tongue. 

"You  will  see  from  all  this  that  you  will  carry  your 
life  in  your  hand. 

*  *  Of  course,  once  relaunched  on  the  Parana  below  the  cat 
aracts,  you  will  be  perfectly  safe,  may  explore  at  leisure  the 
country  on  either  bank,  and  should  find  the  rest  of  your 
journey  to  Candelaria  a  real  pleasure. 


CANOES  435 

"From  Candelaria  to  Asuncion  you  will  have  much  the 
same  sort  of  jaunt  as  you  had  from  Yaguaron  to  Caapucu." 


(2) 

During  his  ride  to  or  from  the  suburban  barracks,  the 
very  afternoon  preceding  his  evening  instructions  to  Haw 
thorne,  Francia's  horse  had  shied  at  a  stray  cur,  and,  when 
the  little  brute  ran  after  him  yelping  and  barking,  the 
Dictator  had  very  nearly  been  unhorsed  by  his  plunging 
mount. 

As  usual,  he  had  called  his  lieutenants  at  once  on  return 
ing  to  the  Palacio  and  had  given  a  general  order  to  ex 
terminate  all  vagrant  and  ownerless  dogs. 

The  next  morning  Hawthorne  set  out  early,  on  horse 
back,  for  El  Zapo's  shipyard,  since  he  wanted  some  trifling 
alterations  made  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel  on  which  he  was 
to  ascend  the  river,  and  knew  that  Soloaga,  whose  work 
shop  was  nearer  than  Riquelme's,  would  procrastinate 
until  the  last  moment,  whereas  El  Zapo  was  reliably 
prompt. 

Hero,  of  course,  ran  before  the  horse,  scurrying  off  in 
an  ecstasy  of  happy  companionship,  and  then  tearing  back 
to  demonstrate  his  affection  by  every  token  within  the  scope 
of  the  canine  sign  language. 

They  were  threading  the  tangle  of  lanes  south  of  Pay- 
agua  Brook,  between  the  barracks  and  El  Zapo's  ship 
yard,  when  Hero,  after  much  frisking,  tail-wagging,  and 
joyous  barking,  dashed  round  a  cactus-hedged  corner  and 
vanished  from  sight.  A  moment  later  Hawthorne  heard 
shots ;  first  one,  then  a  rattling  fusillade.  Between  the  last 
sounded  a  dog's  shrill  yelp  of  dismay  and  pain,  and  then 
the  air  was  pierced  by  a  sort  of  tremolo  of  yelping  expres 
sive  of  terror,  agony,  and  hope  of  protection,  which  ear- 
splitting  noise  grew  louder  as  it  rapidly  came  nearer.  Three 
more  shots  punctuated  it. 

Then  Hero  came  into  view  round  the  corner,  before  Haw 
thorne 's  mount,  urged  by  whip  and  spur,  could  turn  it. 

At  once  the  solicitous  master  sprang  to  earth  and  gath 
ered  his  idol  into  his  arms.  A  brief  examination  showed 
that  only  one  bullet  had  struck  him  and  that  had  shot  off 


436  EL   SUPREMO 

the  extra  toe  of  his  left  hind- foot.  Like  a  man  who  loses 
a  finger  in  battle,  Hero  had  suffered  ten  times  as  much  pain 
as  if  shot  through  the  heart,  and  had  become  temporarily 
frantic.  But  the  ultimate  injury  was  trifling. 

Just  as  Hawthorne  assured  himself  that  the  dog  was  not 
otherwise  injured,  a  dozen  quarteleros  ran  helter-skelter 
round  the  corner  and  yelled  at  him  in  Guarani  to  get  out 
of  the  way  and  let  them  shoot  the  dog.  \Vheii  he  vigor 
ously  replied  that  the  dog  was  his,  they  chorused  that  they 
had  El  Supremo's  orders  to  shoot  all  dogs  running  at 
large.  Several  threatened  to  shoot  anyhow,  if  he  would  not 
stand  aside;  two  made  as  if  to  bayonet  the  dog,  and  one 
aimed  at  Hero's  head  a  blow  with  his  clubbed  musket,  and 
barely  missed. 

Hawthorne,  who  was  amazed  that  they  did  not  recognise 
him,  was  proclaiming  himself  El  Supremo's  friend  and  in 
timate  and  threatening  dire  vengeance,  when  Zorilla  panted 
up  and  commanded: 

' '  Seize  the  fool !    Pull  the  dog  away  from  him ! " 

Hawthorne  stood  up  tall,  Hero  between  his  feet. 

* '  Pull  my  dog  away  from  me ! ' '  he  roared.    '  *  Seize  me !  " 

At  that,  Zorilla  recognised  him,  with  a  malignant  leer  of 
baffled  cruelty.  He  apologised  and  assured  the  foreigner 
that  his  dog  was  perfectly  safe. 

But  Hawthorne  took  no  chances.  Slung  across  his  mas 
ter's  saddle-bow,  docile  and  cowed,  yet  pathetically  grate- 
ful,  Hero  completed  their  progress  to  El  Zapo's  and  the 
return  to  Casa  Mayorga. 

(3) 

The  morning  before  his  departure,  Hawthorne  arranged 
for  a  long,  undisturbed  visit  to  the  prison.  Cecilia  re 
ceived  him  with  her  customary  politeness,  unwarmed  by  any 
sign  that  she  was  glad  to  see  him.  She  embroidered  se 
renely  as  he  talked,  listening  while  he  described  what  he 
meant  to  do,  and  how  he  intended  to  go  about  it.  She 
made  no  comments,  nor  did  she  say  anything  while  he  told 
how  long  he  was  likely  to  be  gone.  He  said  nothing  of  the 
dangers  of  his  venture  or  of  the  chance  that  he  might  never 
come  back. 

Cecilia  herself  at  this  point  began  to  ask  questions  about 


CANOES  437 

the  rivers,  the  Indians  in  the  forests,  the  game,  the  pampas 
of  Guayra,  the  falls  of  the  Gran  Salto,  the  rapids  below 
them,  the  Artiguefios  in  Missiones.  Hawthorne  replied  at 
length. 

When  he  paused,  Cecilia  unexpectedly  spoke  in  French. 

"Monsieur  Guillermo,"  she  said,  "how  do  people  address 
you  in  English  ? ' ' 

"They  say  'Mr.  Hawthorne'  generally/'  Hawthorne  re 
plied,  "or  use  no  form  of  address  whatever.  New  Eng- 
landers  are  not  ceremonious.  My  old  friends  use  my  first 
name." 

"I  mean,"  Cecilia  pursued,  shaking  her  head,  "how  does 
it  sound  when  one  addresses  you  at  home,  using  your  whole 
name  1  Pronounce  it  for  me,  if  you  please. ' ' 

"William  Hawthorne,"  he  uttered. 

Cecilia  put  her  head  on  one  side  with  a  pretty  air  of 
attention. 

'  *  Say  it  again ! ' '  she  commanded. 

He  repeated  the  syllables  deliberately. 

Cecilia  sighed. 

"I  can  pronounce  French,"  she  said,  with  a  shrug,  "and 
Spanish,  but  I  am  sure  I  should  never  learn  English." 

Hawthorne  regarded  her  without  speaking. 

"And  when  your  old  friends  address  you  by  your  first 
name,"  she  resumed,  "how  does  that  sound?" 

"William,"  said  Hawthorne;  "or  Will,  or  Willy,  or  Bill, 
or  Billy." 

"Five  names!"  Cecilia  cried. 

"It  is  like  saying  Pancho,  Panchito,  Curro  or  Currito 
for  Francisco,"  Hawthorne  explained. 

' '  Say  them  over, ' '  Cecilia  bade. 

She  listened  with  her  head  charmingly  inclined. 

"I  do  not  like  the  last  three  at  all!"  she  proclaimed. 
"Say  the  first  and  second  again." 

She  had  a  coquettish,  tantalising  air  of  making  ready  to 
pronounce  them  after  him. 

But  she  did  not. 

"I  am  sure,"  she  said,  still  in  French,  "I  could  never 
learn  to  utter  such  sounds. ' ' 

When  he  rose  to  go,  she  also  rose.  She  seemed  to  Haw 
thorne  to  flush  and  pale. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  she  said,  "you  will  be  gone 


438  EL   SUPREMO 

long,  at  the  best.  I  shall  think  of  you.  You  have  given 
me  many  gifts.  Let  me  give  you  one/' 

The  flowers  he  had  brought  her  she  had  placed  in  her 
belt.  She  took  them  out,  selected  three,  put  one  in  her 
hair,  and  held  out  one  to  Hawthorne,  retaining  the  other 
in  her  left  hand.  Hawthorne  bowed  over  her  hand,  kissed 
it  in  the  courtly  Spanish  fashion,  and  took  the  flower. 

Her  lips  appeared  just  about  to  form  the  words:  "Good 
bye,  Will,"  but  she  said  instead,  "Adios,  Senor  Don  Guil- 
lermo. ' ' 

"Adios,  Dona  Cecilia,"  said  Hawthorne. 

When  he  was  outside  the  stockade  he  looked  back.  Ce 
cilia  was  visible  at  the  door  of  her  hut.  It  seemed  to  Haw 
thorne  she  held  to  her  lips  his  flower. 


(4) 

That  night,  for  the  first  and  last  time,  Hawthorne  was 
one  of  two  guests  at  supper  at  the  Palacio.  The  second 
guest  was  Beltran. 

Hawthorne  had  looked  forward  to  a  most  enjoyable  tri 
angular  conversation,  an  evening  to  be  remembered.  It 
turned  out  to  be  an  evening  to  be  long  remembered,  but 
not  enjoyable. 

From  the  moment  they  were  seated  Hawthorne  realised 
a  most  difficult  situation,  a  tense  and  tingling  atmosphere. 
Apparently  not  one  of  the  three  had  foreseen  anything 
of  the  kind,  probably  any  one  of  them  would  have  rejected 
any  anticipation  of  such  conditions  as  ridiculously  impos 
sible.  But  they  were  comically  real,  disagreeably  and  men 
acingly  real. 

It  was  instantly  apparent  that  every  symptom  of  their 
mutual  friendship  irritated  Francia,  every  token  of  Haw 
thorne 's  fondness  for  Beltran  exasperated  him,  every  in 
dication  of  Beltran 's  liking"  Hawthorne  infuriated  him. 
The  situation  was  immediately  delicate  and  embarrassing. 
It  became  all  the  more  ticklish  when  it  was  borne  in  upon 
Hawthorne  that  Beltran  was  equally  jealous  of  his  high 
standing  with  the  Dictator  and  of  his  admiration  for  Fran 
cia,  that  eTTery  evidence  of  past  favours  or  spontaneous 
deference  was  an  offence  to  him.  And  he  could  have 


CANOES 


439 


laughed  aloud  as  he  became  aware  that  he  himself  was 
fairly  quivering  with  the  like  feelings ;  that  Beltran,  some 
how,  appeared  an  interloper  diminishing  the  Dictator's  re 
gard  for  him  and  Francia  a  rival  filching  away  Beltran's 
former  affection  and  friendship  towards  him. 

His  inward  philosophising  on  the  strangeness  of  the  sit 
uation  merged  into  a  sort  of  brown-study,  in  which  he 
heard  the  others'  voices  as  if  distant  and  blurred,  out  of 
which  he  made  mechanical  monosyllabic  replies.  From 
this  dangerous  abstraction  he  was  roused  to  find  himself 
a  party  to  a  triangular  altercation  perilously  near  to  de 
generating  into  a  violent  wrangle.  Its  beginnings  were  lost 
in  his  momentary  self -absorption,  and  he  could  never  rec 
ollect  how  it  had  been  started  or  by  whom.  In  its  progress 
it  consisted  mainly  of  a  series  of  mild  restrained  arguments 
on  the  Dictator's  part  maintaining  that  beliefs  in  appari 
tions,  spectres,  or  in  any  reappearances  of  the  spirits  of 
the  dead  were  contemptible  superstitions,  unworthy  of  any 
sane  or  cultured  man,  countered  by  belligerent  affirmations 
on  Beltran's  part  that  an  entirely  rational  and  intellectual 
man  might  believe  in  ghosts  and  visions  and  in  the  possi 
bility  of  seeing  and  conversing  with  the  shades  of  departed 
acquaintances  and  that  he,  at  any  rate,  so  believed  and  as 
serted  his  right  to  the  belief  and  the  reasonableness  of  such 
beliefs. 

^  The  matter  of  the  quarrel  was  innocuous,  its  manner  most 
risky.  Beltran  was  sulky  and  surly  over  each  argument 
advanced  by  the  Dictator,  Francia  sneering  and  sarcastic ; 
Hawthorne  could  not  keep  silence,  and  every  utterance  of 
his,  no  matter  how  impersonal  nor  how  carefully  worded, 
brought  both  his  fellow-diners  round  upon  him  as  if  mor 
tally  affronted.  He  began  to  be  irritated  himself,  not  so 
much  at  Francia 's  hardly  abnormal  innuendoes  as  at  Bel 
tran's  almost  childish  reiterations  of  his  complete  faith 
in  communications  to  the  living  by  the  souls  of  the  de 
ceased. 

The  discussion  gradually  altered  its  quality,  the  subject 
of  it  becoming  almost  forgotten,  and  the  main  interest 
again  being  the  mutual  jealousies  of  the  three. 

The  blend  of  tragedy  and  farce,  the  interplay  of  raw, 
crude  primitive  passion  overlaid  by  surface  courtliness,  and 
leashed  by  habits  of  stern  self-control,  created  a  complex  of 


440  EL   SUPREMO 

tensions  in  the  stress  of  which  Hawthorne  felt  they  were 
three  incipient  lunatics. 

Yet  they  hehaved  as  three  diplomats ;  ate,  drank,  toasted 
each  other,  smoked,  took  snuff  and  played  at  amiability. 
They  even  played  three  games  of  chess,  of  which  that  be 
tween  Beltran  and  Hawthorne  proved,  to  the  astonishment 
of  all  of  them,  the  longest,  the  hardest  fought  and  the  best 
played. 

How  to  make  his  escape  had  been  a  nightmare  to  Haw 
thorne  from  the  first.  It  turned  out  as  easy  as  possible. 
Francia  conducted  them  to  the  main  entrance  of  the  Palacio 
and  bade  them  good-night  as  if  no  shadow  had  crossed 
their  evening.  And  the  two  linked  arms  and  walked  off  as 
amicably  as  they  had  come. 

(5) 

Next  morning  Hawthorne  was  accompanied  from  the 
Mayorga  mansion  to  the  river-bank  by  a  sort  of  body-guard 
of  friends:  Carmelo  Mayorga,  Dr.  Bargas,  Don  Gregorio, 
Saturnino  Bedoya,  and  also  Dr.  Parlett,  more  than  half 
sober.  Before  the  Palacio  they  waited  while  he  briefly  paid 
his  respects  to  the  Dictator  and  received  his  papers.  At 
the  landing-stairs  he  found  assembled  to  bid  him  farewell 
and  wish  him  good  fortune  a  large  gathering:  Beltran,  as 
beaming  as  if  no  cloud  had  ever  come  between  them ;  Don 
Gumesindo,  all  self-importance  and  long-winded  harangues ; 
Don  Cristobal  de  Maria,  embarrassed  and  punctilious ;  Don 
Mauricio  Zelaya  with  Don  Meliton  Isasi*;  and  Don  Manuel 
Bianquet,  accompanied  by  young  Marcos  Barbeito  and  old 
Avelino  Mendez. 

Don  Meliton 's  brig,  the  Inglesita,  had  been  chartered  to 
convey  the  expedition  up  the  Rio  Paraguay  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Rio  Blanco.  The  wind  was  fair  and  the  adieus  were 
brief.  Very  shortly  Asuncion  faded  from  view. 

The  wind  continued  fair.  There  were  no  Carbonels  to 
squabble  and  wrangle.  Lopez  and  his  men  gambled  as  in 
cessantly  as  on  the  way  to  the  yerbales,  but  somehow  more 
pleasantly,  to  all  appearance.  The  steady  breeze  kept  off 
the  mosquitoes,  at  least  they  were  few  and  bearable.  The 
Payagua  Indians  were  taciturn,  and.  their  odours  not  un 
endurable. 


CANOES  441 

In  fact,  Hawthorne  spent  most  of  his  time  with  the  Pay- 
aguas.  Though  the  brig  wavS  making  the  up-voyage  as 
rapidly  as  navigation  against  the  current  would  be  per 
formed  by  a  sailing  vessel,  yet  no  river  craft  impelled  by 
sails  could  keep  up  with  a  lapacho  wood  canoe  paddled  by 
stalwart  Payaguas.  Daily  Hawthorne  had  one  or  another 
of  the  canoes  slung  overside  soon  after  dawn ;  daily  he  set 
off  in  it,  landing  sometimes  on  the  settled  bank  of  the  river, 
oftener  in  the  reeds  and  waterside  forest-strip  along  the 
Gran  Chaco.  Most  of  the  day  he  spent  on  the  water  or 
gunning  ashore.  Daily  they  shot  downstream  in  the  late 
afternoon  with  a  fine  load  of  game :  armadillos,  water-hogs, 
bustards,  pheasants,  royal  duck  or  what  not.  Never  did 
they  bring  off  quite  all  Hawthorne  shot.  He  regretted 
Hero,  necessarily  left  behind  at  Asuncion.  But  always 
they  had  enough  game  to  vary  their  diet.  Sometimes,  if 
game  was  scarce,  he  shot  a  wild  ox  in  the  dense  underwood 
by  the  river  on  the  Chaco  side. 

Above  the  outfall  of  the  Ypane  Guazu,  he  landed  oftener 
on  the  civilised  east  bank  and  investigated  possible  sites  for 
a  penal  colony.  One  or  two  pleased  him. 

Without  an  hour  of  headwind,  without  one  single  ground 
ing  on  a  sand  bar,  without  any  untoward  event,  they 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Bio  Blanco,  which  one  of  the  Pay 
aguas  '  caciques  identified  convincingly. 

There  the  nine  canoes  were  launched,  loaded  and  manned, 
the  Inglesita  dropped  downstream  with  the  current,  the 
canoes,  their  paddlers  chanting  a  wild,  guttural  chorus, 
headed  up  the  winding,  forest-hung  reaches  of  the  Rio 
Blanco. 

Each  canoe  carried  a  horse,  its  rider  and  his  recado,  its 
share  of  the  provisions  and  nine  Payagua  Indians:  eight 
paddlers  and  their  cacique. 

Hawthorne,  seated  by  the  cacique  under  a  little  awning 
at  the  stern,  found  much  to  wonder  at  and  admire. 

^  The  canoe,  fully  forty  feet  long,  was  one  single  and  mag 
nificent  piece  of  timber,  the  scooped-out  hollow  trunk  of  a 
superb  lapacho  tree,  taking  the  water  with  unsurpassable 
grace  and  lightness. 

The  eight  paddlers,  naked  except  for  the  merest  apology 
for  a  waist-cloth,  plied  their  nine-foot  paddles  so  mightily 
that  the  canoe  made  full  ten  miles  an  hour  against  the 


442  EL   SUPREMO 

rapid  current;  trees,  islands  and  promontories  marched  to 
wards  them,  fled  past,  and  vanished  behind  them  as  every 
moment  they  opened  up  new  vistas  of  enchanting  scenery. 
Scenery,  however,  of  a  certain  sameness. 

The  paddlers  themselves  fascinated  Hawthorne.  On 
his  river  trips  near  Asuncion,  on  his  hunting-days,  on  the 
voyage,  he  had  ignored  his  boatmen,  alert  with  interest  in 
his  surroundings.  Now,  glutted  with  pageants  of  tropical 
vegetation,  he  found  leisure  and  inclination  to  study  the 
Payaguas. 

Tall,  springy,  every  muscle  discernible,  they  were  the 
incarnation  of  ease,  grace  and  freedom  of  action,  and 
seemed  as  fresh  and  vigorous  after  a  long  day's  paddling 
as  at  the  start ;  rhythmically  bending  and  rising  alternately 
at  each  stroke,  seeming  to  take  a  perpetual  pleasure  in 
their  toil;  every  pose  and  movement  of  their  lithe  bodies, 
every  lineament  of  their  countenances  expressive  of  a  vivid 
delight  in  being  on  the  water. 

Also  they  were  perfectly  simultaneous  in  their  move 
ments,  and  answered  instantly  to  the  cries  of  their  cacique, 
who,  although  seated  in  the  stern,  acted  as  pilot  as  well  as 
steersman.  At  his:  "Hd,  hd,"  or  "Aid,  aid,"  they  swerved 
instantaneously  in  the  direction  indicated. 

From  the  time  they  entered  the  Rio  Blanco,  Lopez  would 
not  allow  a  gun  to  be  fired.  In  the  first  place,  he  said, 
they  must  husband  their  ammunition.  In  the  second  place, 
they  knew  not  what  or  what  sort  of  Indians  might  lurk  in 
the  neighbourhood.  So  the  Payaguas'  arrows  provided 
practically  all  the  food  for  the  expedition,  and,  as  long  as 
they  were  near  water,  this  was  more  than  they  could  eat; 
amazing  gorgers  as  the  soldiers  were,  the  Payaguas  were 
even  more  notable  hunters.  If  the  cacique  caught  sight  of 
a  dorado,  he  uttered  but  a  brief  shout  of  three  or  four 
bitten-off  syllables.  Instanter  one  of  the  paddlers,  glanc 
ing  at  once  in  the  right  direction,  softly  laid  aside  his  pad 
dle,  not  in  the  least  marring  the  stroke  of  the  rest,  noise 
lessly  grasped  his  mighty  iron-wood  bow,  transfixed  the 
fish  with  his  six-foot  arrow,  and  drew  it  in  with  the  cord, 
four  feet  of  tempting  food. 

If  it  was  a  pheasant  or  wild  turkey  skulking  among  the 
thick  boughs,  its  death  was  equally  swift  and  certain.  Even 
the  wild  hogs  that  came  to  drink  on  the  banks  never  sur- 


CANOES  443 

vived  one  arrow,  scarcely  struggled,  so  fatal  and  so  unerr 
ing  was  the  Payaguas'  aim. 

When  the  brief  dusk  preluded  the  night  and  they  went 
ashore,  it  was  a  marvel  to  see  how  rapidly  the  Payaguas 
obtained  from  the  stream  a  supply  of  fish  so  generous  that 
never  once  did  they  consume  it  all,  and  one  Payagua  could 
eat  an  incredible  quantity  of  broiled  fish.  Pork,  pheasant, 
turkey  or  such  delicacies  as  dorado,  they  left  for  the  sol 
diers,  Lopez  or  Hawthorne.  Fish,  preferably  cat-fish,  was 
what  a  Payagua  relished.  "C^*-  /  "to  Q  - 

When  the  canoes  grounded  hourly  and  scraped  bottom 
the  rest  of  the  day,  it  was  manifestly  time  to  abandon  them. 
Then  there  was  much  jabbering  about  a  landing,  marks  and 
a  hiding  place.  To  return  for  those  canoes,  even  if  two 
years  later,  was  plainly  their  purpose. 

Once  afoot,  their  faces  no  longer  happy,  merely  doggedly 
resolute,  each  Payagua  packed  a  staggering  burden,  and 
bore  up  under  it  manfully.  During  the  passage  of  the 
Sierra  de  Amambahay,  they  never  murmured,  but  their 
delight  at  reaching  again  navigable  streams  was  so  pathet 
ically  intense  that  Hawthorne  was  not  over  nice  as  to 
whether  they  had  struck  the  headwaters  of  the  Anhanduhy 
or  the  Ivinheyma.  Then  and  there  he  set  the  Payaguas  to 
felling  lapacho  trees  and  hollowing  and  shaping  canoes. 
The  work  went  merrily,  and  in  a  few  days  they  were  pro 
vided  with  balsas:  canoes  fastened  side  by  side  in  pairs  by 
means  of  stout  canes  laid  across  both,  forming  a  sort  of 
deck ;  an  ideal  design  of  vessel  for  floating  down  the  rapid 
current  of  an  unknown  river,  being  uncapsisable,  steady, 
and  swift  when  going  with  the  stream. 

In  these  they  made  the  voyage  down  the  Ivinheyma  and 
the  Parana.  At  the  mouth  of  each  tributary  they  camped, 
and  Hawthorne,  convoyed  only  by  Lopez  and  one  sol 
dier,  explored  the  smaller  stream,  in  a  hasty  party  of  two 
canoes.  Tolomeo  always  went  along,  for,  timid  as  Haw 
thorne  had  thought  him,  the  mulatto  boy  developed  into  a 
good  shot  and  learned  woodcraft  so  rapidly  that  he  soon 
seemed  as  much  an  adept  as  if  bred  in  the  forests. 

Lopez,  whether  superintending  canoes,  balsas,  horses  or 
porters,  was  a  marvel  of  promptness  and  celerity.  But  at 
times,  without  warning,  he  appeared  seized  with  fits  of  in 
dolence.  In  these  he  obstinately  refused  to  budge,  no  mat- 


444  EL   SUPREMO 

ter  how  favourable  the  weather,  wind  or  current  might  be. 
It  seemed  as  if  he  acted  upon  mere  whim;  he  never  gave 
any  reason  for  these  exasperating  halts ;  to  all  appearances 
he  was  actuated  by  alteration  of  mood  only ;  but  Hawthorne 
always  more  than  suspected  that  he  had  his  reasons  and 
was  governed  by  a  clear-headed  judgment.  Nevertheless, 
at  sight  of  an  indescribable  and  inscrutable  smile  about  the 
lieutenant's  plump  mouth,  Hawthorne  was  thrown  into  a 
passion  of  inward  rage,  for  he  knew  that  argument  was 
futile,  and  the  halt  would  continue  till  Lopez  chose  to 
proceed. 

On  such  halts,  and  oftener  at  ordinary  evening  camps, 
Lopez  occasionally  fell  moody  and  gloomed  in  silence.  This 
was  not  often,  and  was  entirely  unlike  his  general  genial 
ity.  In  such  fits  of  gloom,  Hawthorne  sometimes  heard  him 
mutter : 

"They  certainly  deserved  it;  they  certainly  deserved  it." 

Once,  Lopez,  who  had  been  chatting  sociably,  uttered 
these  words  after  a  brief  silence  and  in  so  conversational  a 
tone  that  Hawthorne,  who  had  fallen  into  a  muse,  uncon 
sciously  replied  with  the  query: 

''Who  deserved  what?" 

"Narciso  and  Agustin, "  Lopez  answered,  half  in  a  dream, 
' '  certainly  deserved  to  be  shot. ' ' 

Then,  as  it  were,  he  wakened  with  a  start  and  looked 
much  disconcerted. 

Hawthorne,  for  that  matter,  was  a  bit  embarrassed.  Trav 
ellers  in  the  wilderness  have  to  be  careful  of  any  intrusion 
on  each  other's  meditations,  for  fear  of  causing  that  aloof 
ness  which  terribly  strains  constant  association.  That  Lo 
pez  was  brooding  over  the  fate  of  his  detested  cousins  was 
the  last  conjecture  that  would  have  occurred  to  Haw 
thorne. 

After  scarcely  an  adventure  and  not  one  misadventure, 
they  sighted  the  pillar  of  cloud  above  the  first  and  mightiest 
cataract  of  the  Gran  Salto.  At  the  end  of  the  last  reach  of 
still  water,  where  they  could  descry  not  many  hundred 
yards  southward  the  roughening  and  suck  at  the  beginning 
of  the  rapids  above  the  fall,  the  caciques  brought  their 
canoes  to  the  Guayra  bank.  There  the  horses,  recados,  arms 
and  ammunition  were  disembarked  and,  after  one  day's 
rest,  they  girthed  up  for  their  dash  round  through  the 


THE   PENINSULA  445 

pampas.  The  Payaguas,  professing  complete  understand 
ing  of  where  they  were  to  meet  again  and  how  they  were 
to  reach  it,  pushed  off,  even  gaily.  The  horsemen  spurred 
steadily  eastward. 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

THE  PENINSULA 

NOT  many  mornings  after  New  Year's  Day  of  1817, 
when  Hawthorne  and  his  party,  in  the  full  heat  of  a 
Paraguayan  summer,  were  painfully  worming  their  way 
through  the  jungles  of  the  Brazilian  frontier,  a  single  canoe 
shot  out  from  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Ipacaray. 

The  sun  was  not  yet  an  hour  high,  the  dawn  breeze  had 
not  yet  died  and  still  rippled  the  almost  calm  waters.  The 
sky  was  deep  blue  without  a  single  cloud.  Except  the  swift 
canoe,  there  was  no  sign  of  human  life  anywhere  visible, 
for  Estancia  de  San  Bernardino  was  already  lost  to  view 
behind  a  point  of  the  wooded  bank  and  Estancia  de  la 
Purificacion  was  still  far  out  of  sight  away  to  the  east. 

The  canoe  was  paddled  by  six  muscular  Guarani  peons. 
Under  its  awning  were  two  women,  one  young  and  the 
other  old.  The  elder  was  a  squab-figured  Guarani,  plainly 
all  her  life  nurse  and  lady's-maid  and  complacently  proud 
of  her  position  of  trust.  She  was  wearing  the  usual  plain 
white  cotton  tupoi,  loose-girdled.  Her  feet  were  bare  as 
they  were  brown.  Her  beautiful  charge  wore  low,  irides 
cent  bronze  shoes,  with  a  narrow  strip  over  the  instep,  white 
silk  stockings,  and  a  tupoi  edged  with  knotted  fringe,  em 
broidered  at  the  hem,  on  the  sleeves  and  around  her  neck. 
It  was  belted  close  to  an  obviously  corseted  waist.  She 
was  enough  like  Don  Lupercio  to  be  his  daughter  instead  of 
his  niece. 

As  the  canoe  was  about  midway  between  the  first  point 
they  had  rounded  and  the  next  beyond  and  perhaps  fifty 
yards  off  the  shore,  where  was  visible  a  continuous  greenery 
of  palm-trees,  r  range-trees,  forest-foliage,  and  nothing  else, 
the  Guarani  -  ,oman  uttered  a  short  sentence.  Instantly  the 
canoe  swerved  and  headed  away  from  the  shore,  while  the 
paddlers  quickened  their  stroke. 


446  EL   SUPREMO 

Ventura  spoke  sharply: 

''What  was  that  you  said,  Fruela?" 

"I  told  Ramon,"  Fruela  replied,  "that  this  was  the 
place  to  turn. ' ' 

"Why  turn?"  Ventura  exclaimed.  "Is  there  a  new 
mud-flat  off  Punta  Caiguie?  It  cannot  be  so  shallow  but 
we  can  cross  it,  anyhow." 

1 '  There  is  no  sand  bar, ' '  Fruela  said ;  ' '  but  that  was  the 
place  to  turn." 

"What  does  this  mean?"  Ventura  exclaimed.  "You 
know  I  wish  to  reach  Purificacion  as  quickly  as  possible. 
We  should  keep  close  to  the  shore.  Tell  them  to  turn  at 
once." 

Fruela  said  nothing. 

No  servants  on  earth  were  ever  more  faithful  than  Gua- 
ranies,  none  more  devoted  and  respectful.  Fruela 's  be 
haviour  amazed  Ventura.  She  looked  about  her. 

' '  Why, ' '  she  cried,  ' '  we  are  crossing  the  lake ! ' ' 

Fruela  remained  silent. 

"Ramon!"  Ventura  called.  "I  do  not  wish  to  go  in 
this  direction.  Turn  to  your  left.  Head  at  once  for  Es- 
tancia  de  la  Purificacion,  as  I  ordered  you !  Do  you  hear 
me?" 

If  Ramon  heard,  he  gave  no  sign.  He  never  turned  his 
head.  She  saw  the  bull-neck  below  his  broad-brimmed  hat, 
the  working  of  his  huge  muscles  under  his  loose  shirt,  the 
poise  of  his  hips,  the  swing  of  his  arms.  His  paddle  dipped 
and  rose,  dipped  and  rose,  the  ripples  round  it  of  precisely 
the  same  form  each  time  it  dipped.  The  other  peons  worked 
exactly  as  he  did  and  in  perfect  time. 

1  i  Ramon ! ' '  Ventura  called,  louder  and  more  imperiously. 
* '  Obey  me !  Turn  the  canoe ! ' ' 

Ramon  paid  no  attention,  nor  did  Pablo,  nor  the  other 
four.  Steadily,  hurriedly,  they  paddled  on. 

Then  Ventura  lost  her  temper  and  soundly  berated  her 
peons  and  her  nurse.  The  utmost  she  was  capable  in  the 
way  of  chiding,  remonstrance  and  expostulation  had  ab 
solutely  no  effect  on  them.  She  was  too  dignified  a  girl  for 
more  scolding,  too  poised  to  lose  her  self-control.  She  fell 
silent  and  thoughtful. 

Disobedience,  from  Guarani  peons,  was  a  portent  as 
amazing  as  if  oxen  had  spoken.  There  were  no  more  docile, 


THE   PENINSULA  447 

biddable  serfs  in  all  the  world.  Ventura  could  scarcely 
have  been  more  dazed  if  the  canoe  had  remained  glued  to 
the  water  or  had  lifted  itself  bodily  into  the  air. 

Her  impulse  was  to  fly  into  a  passion.  But  she  reflected 
that  they  were  evidently  pursuing  a  definite  purpose  and 
that  Fruela  alone  was  muscular  enough  to  seize  and  re 
strain  her  as  if  she  had  been  a  mere  child.  Any  one  of  the 
hulking  peons  could  have  held  her  as  easily  as  an  infant. 
She  was  too  patrician  to  risk  the  indignity  of  personal  vio 
lence.  She  raged  inwardly  at  her  helplessness.  Threats 
rose  to  her  lips.  The  occurrence  appeared  a  monstrous 
nightmare,  grotesque  and  incredible. 

Suddenly  she  sat  bolt-upright  among  her  soft  grass-cloth 
cushions.  She  flushed  crimson  and  then  paled.  It  must  be 
a  very  powerful  motive  that  would  lead  Guarani  servants 
to  disobey  their  mistress.  It  flashed  on  her  what  that  mo 
tive  must  be,  what  was  the  one  authority  a  Guarani  held 
higher  than  that  of  an  employer. 

She  settled  herself  with  elaborate  composure  and  began 
to  eye  the  south  bank  of  the  lake.  At  first  she  could  make 
out  nothing,  except  the  mere  colour  of  the  forest-clad  shore. 
As  they  drew  near,  the  outlines  of  low  hills,  the  points  and 
coves  of  the  margin  of  the  land  began  to  be  discernible. 
"When  they  were  close  enough  she  caught  sight  of  what  she 
had  conjectured,  a  picket  of  horsemen  by  the  water's  edge. 
Presently  she  made  out  another.  The  two  were  not  close 
together,  but  considerably  over  a  hundred  yards  apart. 
Between  them  a  sort  of  rounded  peninsula  jutted  out  to 
the  lake,  sufficiently  elevated  to  be  firm,  dry  ground,  free 
of  bogs  and  marsh-mud,  low  enough  to  be  easily  accessible. 
It  was  wooded  with  a  grove  of  close  orange-trees,  not  a 
palm  among  them.  Along  the  water  it  was  edged  with  a 
narrow  strip  of  clean  sand,  clear  of  the  fallen,  water-logged 
palm-trunks  which  defaced  and  encumbered  most  of  the 
lake 's  margin.  Towards  the  broadest  bit  of  sand,  just  east 
of  the  point  of  the  peninsula,  her  paddlers  drove  the  canoe. 

While  still  many  boat-lengths  off  shore  she  descried  a 
tent  pitched  under  the  orange-trees  some  twenty  yards 
from  the  water.  In  front  of  it  was  a  small  table,  on  which 
she  divined  the  gleam  of  silver.  On  either  side  of  the  table 
was  a  chair.  One  was  empty,  a  shaft  of  sunlight  striking 
between  the  overarching  leafage  glinted  brightly  on  it.  On 


448  EL   SUPREMO 

the  other  chair  sat  a  tall  man,  clad  entirely  in  black,  his 
head  bare  and  long  black  ringlets  falling  profusely  over 
the  crimson  capote  that  draped  his  narrow  shoulders. 

With  a  shiver,  Ventura  recognised  the  Dictator. 

The  canoe  grated  softly  on  the  sand;  the  four  paddlers 
leapt  out  and  steadied  it. 

Fruela  spoke  almost  in  a  whisper : 

* '  The  Garai  waits.    Will  not  the  sefiorita  go  to  him  ? ' ' 

Ventura  had  too  much  sense  to  make  a  scene.  She  real 
ised  the  unspoken  threat,  the  atmosphere  of  limitless  power 
held  mildly  in  leash.  She  was  of  no  mind  to  submit  and 
obey,  least  of  all,  a  veiled  order  conveyed  by  her  nurse 
maid.  But  she  was  too  genuinely  proud  to  expose  herself 
to  possible  compulsion. 

As  if  she  had  herself  planned  and  ordered  this  meeting, 
she  stepped  daintily  from  the  canoe  to  the  sand. 

Francia  stood  up  and  walked  towards  her,  a  commanding 
figure,  very  impressive  in  such  sombre  attire,  set  off  and 
emphasised  by  the  graceful  folds  of  his  brilliant  capote. 

"Buenos  dias,  Sefiorita !"  he  said. 

"Buenos  dias,  Senor  Don  Gaspar!"  spoke  Ventura 
haughtily,  looking  him  angrily  full  in  the  eyes  as  she 
dropped  him  an  elaborate  and  ironical  curtsey. 

Stepping  nearer,  he  took  her  unresisting  hand,  bent  over 
it  and  kissed  it  ceremoniously,  after  the  ancient  Castilian 
fashion. 

"It  was  very  good  of  you  not  to  disappoint  me,"  he 
said. 

Coldly  withdrawing  her  hand,  Ventura  spoke,  her  voice 
vibrating  with  suppressed  rage. 

"Goodness  had  nothing  to  do  with  my  coming,"  she 
said.  "I  ordered  my  canoe  to  visit  Aunt  Paquita,  and  was 
haled  here,  as  a  lamb  to  the  butcher,  by  my  own  peons." 

"A  very  tigerish  lamb,"  Francia  smiled,  "and  you  will 
find  me  no  butcher.  Believe  me,  I  gave  no  such  commands. 
You  were  haled  here  ?  Did  you  not  receive  my  letter  ? ' ' 

"I  received  no  letter,"  Ventura  told  him. 

"I'll  wager  Fruela  received  it,"  Francia  declared. 
"Pray  oblige  me  by  asking  her." 

Ventura  turned. 

"Fruela! "she  called. 

When  the  woman  stood  near,  she  said : 


THE   PENINSULA  449 

"You  had  a  letter  for  me?" 

"And  have,  senorita,"  Fruela  confessed,  producing  it 
and  handing  it  to  her. 

"Why  did  you  not  give  me  this  before?"  Ventura  de 
manded. 

"The  Carai,'9  Fruela  explained,  "wished  to  speak  to  the 
senorita  here  at  this  hour.  The  Carai' s  wishes  must  be  ful 
filled.  It  was  better  to  bring  the  senorita  here  first  and 
give  her  the  letter  afterwards.  Then  she  was  certain  to  be 
here,  as  ordered." 

Ventura  tucked  the  letter  into  her  belt. 

* '  Wait  for  me  at  the  canoe,  Fruela ! ' '  she  commanded. 

"That,"  said  Francia,  "is  the  simple  native,  devoid  of 
subtlety  or  insight.  They  are  all  stolid,  dull  brute-beasts, 
indeed!" 

"I  am  here,"  Ventura  said,  "and  most  eager  to  return 
across  the  lake." 

1 '  You  shall  return  as  you  came, ' '  Francia  reassured  her, 
"and  before  the  heat  of  the  day." 

"What,  then,"  she  asked,  "doVou  want  with  me?" 

"The  favour,"  Francia  said,  "of  a  brief  conversation. 
Your  maid  is  but  a  few  yards  away  and  in  plain  sight.  Do 
me  the  favour  to  be  seated. ' ' 

Ventura  gazed  at  the  table  and  the  two  chairs,  walked  to 
that  from  which  the  sunrays  had  now  shifted  and  sat  down. 

The  urn  steamed  on  the  table,  the  blue  flame  of  the  spirit 
lamp  flickering  below  it.  About  it  were  gourds,  b&mbillas, 
panales,  lemons  and  a  bowl  of  yerba-po-wder. 

"Will  you  not  accept  my  mate?"  the  Dictator  asked, 
seating  himself. 

"Yes,"  Ventura  replied;  "even  a  kidnapped  prisoner 
may  accept  mate  of  her  captor." 

' '  Do  not  put  it  that  way, ' '  Francia  demurred.  ' '  You  are 
angry  and  harsh.  Conceive  that  I  have  had  all  my  life  but 
one  genuine  conversation  with  a  woman.  That  was  with 
you  at  Madrina  Juana's  fiesta.  I  have  thought  of  it  ever 
since,  as  I  have  since  my  boyhood  thought  of  the  rose  your 
mother  threw  me.  I  have  planned  this  interview  for 
months.  I  have  had  to  make  most  careful  arrangements  that 
not  a  soul  might  know,  learn  or  suspect.  I  have  ridden  ten 
leagues  by  starlight  to  be  here.  If  you  refuse  me  an  hour 
of  chat,  you  may  this  instant  re-enter  your  canoe  and  be 


450  EL   SUPREMO 

paddled  away.  I  desire  a  talk  with  you,  but  not  unless 
freely  accorded.  I  scorn  anything  made  mine  by  duress. 
Will  you  not  accept  a  gourd  of  mate?" 

"Yes,"  Ventura  said ;  "mate  will  be  good  for  me.  I  have 
been  frightened  and  am  still  bewildered.  Had  we  not  bet 
ter  talk  in  French  ?" 

Francia  smiled. 

"I  am  vain  of  my  fluency  in  that  language,"  he  said, 
preparing  a  gourd  of  mate,  "but  your  servants  understand 
only  Guarani  and  my  pickets  and  sentinels  are  more  than 
three  ear-shots  away.  There  is  no  need  for  caution  from 
eavesdroppers,  and  we  both  think  better  in  Castilian." 

"Spanish  let  it  be,  then,"  said  Ventura,  taking  the  gourd 
he  held  out. 

When  she  laid  it  down,  Francia  said,  placing  his  beside 
it: 

* '  To  begin  with,  tell  me  something  of  your  arrival  at  San 
Bernardino  and  of  your  life  there;  I  know  nothing  of  it, 
and  am  sincerely  interested." 

"Sincerely!"  Ventura  cried,  her  face  aflame  with  scorn 
and  uncontrollable  anger.  "Can  I  believe  you  sincere 
about  anything?  You  are  so  perfectly  in  touch  with  San 
Bernardino  that  you  can  not  only  move  my  servants  to 
thwart  me  but  can  control  them  better  than  I  could;  and 
you  have  the  effrontery  to  tell  me  that  you  know  nothing 
of  what  goes  on  there!  You  must  know  everything,  and 
more  than  I  know.  Your  spies,  I  presume,  are  in  every 
out-building,  in  every  corner  of  the  house !  I  know  I  am 
not  your  spy,  nor  is  my  father.  I  must  assume,  however, 
that  every  other  human  being  on  the  estancia  is  your  pup 
pet!" 

Francia  looked  stern,  astonished,  hurt  and  pleased  all  at 
once.  He  took  a  very  big  pinch  of  snuff. 

"You  certainly  are  not  afraid  of  me!"  he  said.  "And 
you  do  not  bore  me  calling  me  'Excellency'  every  third 
breath.  All  that  is  delightful.  But  you  overrate  my  ca 
pacity  for  omniscience  and  overestimate  the  length  of  my 
arm.  I  am  not  omnipotent  nor  omnipresent,  even  vicari 
ously.  My  Guaranies  adore  me  and  never  fail  to  do  my  will 
as  they  understand  it.  But  they  are  incapable  of  generali 
sations  and  mostly  can  remember  but  one  order  at  a  time. 
If  told  to  collect  information  about  a  specified  matter,  they 


THE   PENINSULA  45! 

let  nothing  escape  them,  and  report  each  fact  or  bit  of  gos 
sip  with  incredible  speed.  But  not  one  would  think  of 
transmitting  news  of  any  occurrence  unless  news  was  asked 
for.  Only  once  or  twice  in  my  life  have  I  known  a  Guarani 
to  display  such  originality  as  Fruela  has  just  exhibited. 

"Keally  I  have  but  vague  and  fragmentary  intimations 
of  what  has  been  going  on  at  San  Bernardino.  The  best 
intentioned  Indians  are  singularly  brief  and  laconic  in  their 
messages,  often  totally  unintelligible.  I  know  practically 
nothing  of  how  you  found  your  home  or  how  life  has 
passed  for  you  there  since  you  returned. " 

Ventura  stared  at  Francia's  face. 

Then,  suddenly,  she  seized  the  letter  from  her  belt, 
ripped  it  open,  and  glanced  through  it.  The  expression  of 
her  face  altered. 

"I  am  not  sure,"  she  said,  "that  this  letter  would  have 
brought  me  here,  but  it  is  a  letter. ' ' 

Francia  looked  on  silently  while  she  lit  it  at  the  spirit 
flame  under  the  urn,  and  watched  it  burn  to  ashes. 

1  i  Why  did  you  read  it  so  precipitately  ? ' '  he  asked. 

"It  occurred  to  me,"  she  said,  "that  there  was  really  no 
letter  and  you  had  ordered  Fruela  and  Ramon  to  do  just 
what  they  did." 

"You  are  over-subtle,"  Francia  commented.  "Are  you 
convinced  ? ' ' 

"My  suspicions,"  she  countered,  "were  at  least  not  veri 
fied." 

* '  And  having  misconceived  me  about  the  letter, ' '  he  said, 
"can  you  not  credit  that  you  misjudged  me  about  prying 
and  ferreting?  And  will  you  not  do  me  the  favour  to  tell 
me  of  San  Bernardino  and  your  home-coming?" 

Ventura's  face  clouded. 

"My  home-coming!"  she  echoed  bitterly.  "Oh!  how  I 
had  looked  forward  to  it  so  long,  so  ardently !  I  had  made 
such  plans  for  my  life  at  home !  I  was  to  be  such  good 
friends  with  my  stepmother.  Madrastra  Pastora  and  I 
had  not  been  on  the  best  of  terms,  I  was  so  insulted  at 
father  forgetting  my  mother  so  soon  and  it  seemed  almost 
indecent  for  him  to  marry  a  girl  scarcely  older  than  I. 

' '  But  in  the  long  years  far  from  home  I  had  come  to  feel 
I  had  been  wrong,  that  it  was  very  natural  he  should 
marry  again,  that  they  had  a  right  to  love  each  other.  I 


452  EL   SUPREMO 

was  going  to  be  so  friendly  with  her,  so  helpful  to  him, 
such  a  comfort  to  both ! 

"Uncle  would  hardly  tell  me  anything,  as  we  rode  by 
Luque  and  the  upper  ford  of  the  Salado.  But  Lupercio 
never  talked  much.  He  said  neither  was  well,  but  he  gave 
me  no  hint,  he  did  not  frighten  me ! 

' '  When  father  did  not  ride  out  to  meet  me,  not  even  half 
a  league,  I  was  hurt  and  pained,  but  not  prescient.  I  had 
no  premonitions. 

"When  I  dismounted  before  the  house,  my  father  no 
where  in  sight,  I  was  violently  incensed.  I  felt  neglected, 
almost  insulted.  But  I  was  not  at  all  enlightened. 

"It  was  wholly  without  warning  that  I  came  suddenly 
upon  him  seated  by  the  catafalque,  his  hand  upon  Madras- 
tra  Pastora's  dead  hand.  His  attitude  of  bowed,  stricken 
grief  was  terrible  to  behold.  I  wanted  to  run  to  him,  to 
take  him  in  my  arms.  But  I  was  repelled  by  his  total  still 
ness.  He  did  not  notice  me,  he  ignored  me. 

"I  stood  before  him. 

"He  raised  his  face. 

* '  I  saw  his  open  eyes. 

"I  understood. 

"My  father  was  st one-blind. " 

She  stared  before  her  across  the  lake,  her  lips  quiver 
ing,  her  eyes  brimming  with  tears.  Francia  silently  re 
garded  her  profile  until  she  had  controlled  herself  and 
turned. 

"Such  was  my  home-coming,"  she  said,  "a  funeral  the 
very  first  day  I  reached  home ;  a  blind  and  bereaved  father 
to  care  for,  who  will  not  be  soothed  or  comforted,  gains 
very  little  solace  from  the  utmost  I  can  do  and  remains 
desolate.7' 

Francia  let  another  silence  pass  before  he  spoke,  judging 
the  moment  carefully. 

"Is  Don  Toribio's  health  good/'  he  asked,  "except  for 
his  blindness  ? ' ' 

"In  all  respects,"  Ventura  said,  "he  is  otherwise  in  good 
health." 

Francia  spoke  in  measured  tones. 

"You  may  judge,"  he  said,  "to  what  extent  my  frag 
ments  of  information  about  San  Bernardino  have  been  dis 
torted  and  incomplete.  I  have  been  under  the  impression 


THE   PENINSULA  453 

that  Don  Toribio's  mind  was  clouded  or  that  he  was  even 
totally  witless.'* 

Ventura  sat  up  straight. 

''Nothing,"  she  said,  "could  be  further  from  the  facts. 
His  mind  is  extraordinarily  keen  and  lively.  He  has  been 
most  kind  to  me,  and  has  made  great  efforts  to  interest 
himself  in  my  adventures  and  in  all  that  happened  to  me, 
even  in  the  smallest  details.  He  has  done  violence  to  his 
inclinations  and  forced  himself  to  ask  countless  questions. 
He  tries  to  seem  interested.  He  has  even  laboriously 
striven  to  divert  himself  by  having  me  teach  him  French 
and  English.  But  it  is  a  pitiful  penance  to  him,  that  is  all 
too  plain.  He  is  thinking  of  my  stepmother  and  of  his  lost 
sight." 

"If  his  mind  is  so  clear,"  enquired  Francia,  "how  has 
the  false  impression  gained  currency?" 

"His  sightlessness  weighs  down  upon  him,"  Ventura 
said.  "I  have  heard  of  blind  estancieros  who  would  have 
their  servants  mount  them  on  horseback  daily  and  would 
take  long  rides,  a  servant  on  either  side,  judging  their  posi 
tion  by  hearing  and  keeping  distance  perfectly;  not  only 
cantering,  but  even  galloping.  But  he  will  not  mount  a 
horse  at  all.  I  have  begged  and  implored  him  to  ride  with 
me.  But  he  refuses.  I  have  heard  of  blind  men  who  found 
amusement  in  caring  for  a  garden.  He  will  not  hear  of 
the  idea.  He  will  not  walk,  even  leaning  on  my  arm.  All 
day  he  sits  in  his  chair  under  the  corridor.  He  will  not 
stir.  All  he  will  say  is  that  God  has  cursed  him  with  blind 
ness  ;  that  if  God  wished  him  to  garden  or  to  ride  he  would 
restore  his  vision. ' ' 

' '  How  long  has  he  been  blind  ? ' '  Francia  queried. 

"He  began  to  notice  that  he  saw  badly  more  than  four 
years  ago, ' '  Ventura  replied.  '  *  By  two  years  ago  he  could 
barely  see  to  move  about.  By  a  year  ago  he  was  totally 
blind." 

'  *  It  seems  to  me, ' '  Francia  said,  * '  he  might  be  curable. ' ' 

"Curable!"  she  cried.  "What  is  curable  in  Paraguay? 
We  recover  if  we  are  stronger  than  the  disease ;  we  die  if 
the  disease  is  more  powerful  than  we.  It  is  all  the  will  of 
God.  But  who  cures  whom  ?  What  sort  of  doctors  have  we 
in  these  wilds  ?  Mulatto  natives,  who  pull  teeth  and  break 
the  jaw  of  one  victim  out  of  every  ten;  who  bleed  every 


454  EL   SUPREMO 

wretch,  man  or  woman,  old  or  young,  who  falls  under  their 
malpractice ;  who  use  or  misuse  herbs  and  simples :  owlish 
old  quacks  from  Spain,  who  ride  on  mules,  with  high-peaked 
saddles,  all  silver  on  the  peaks  and  on  their  clumsy  bridles, 
who  look  wise,  prescribe  some  harmless  draft,  and  leave  the 
patient  to  live  or  die;  who  give  up  visiting  in  the  winter 
because,  forsooth,  as  they  say  in  their  ignorance,  nature 
does  not  then  assist  them  and  therefore  they  wait  until 
the  spring. ' ' 

She  looked  very  handsome  pouring  out  her  indignation  in 
this  long  tirade.  Francia  never  took  his  eyes  off  her.  "When 
she  paused,  he  said : 

"Surgery  might  cure  him." 

* '  Surgery ! ' '  she  cried.  ' '  In  Paraguay !  "What  irony  to 
mention  it !  If  I  had  him  in  Paris  or  in  London  or  even  in 
Philadelphia,  he  might  be  cured  if  his  malady  is  one  sur 
gery  can  cure.  But  even  in  Paris  there  is  much  risk  con 
nected  with  surgery  of  the  eye.  Many  attempts  are  fruit 
less,  and  there  are  many  causes  of  blindness  against  which 
surgery  is  of  no  avail. 

'  *  I  have  thought  over  it  all  again  and  again.  If  I  cannot 
stir  him  to  take  a  walk  in  the  sun,  how  could  I  rouse  him 
to  undertake  a  long  sea- voyage?  If  I  could,  we  might 
never  even  reach  Buenos  Aires,  such  is  the  confusion  and 
uncertainty  along  the  river.  There  is  the  risk  of  wrecks 
at  sea  also.  No,  the  thing  is  possible,  but  not  practicable. 
It  would  be  hard  for  a  well  man,  with  good  sight.  It  was 
hard  for  me,  young  and  full  of  hope.  He  is  blind  and  old 
and  hopeless.  No  help  can  be  hoped  for  in  his  case.  Res 
ignation  is  his  only  recourse. ' ' 

Francia  made  no  comment  for  a  moment.    Then  he  said : 

"You  are  certainly  a  great  solace  to  him." 

"Not  a  great  solace,"  Ventura  bitterly  answered,  "nor 
a  small  solace.  For  all  the  good  I  do  him  I  might  as  well 
be  in  Asuncion,  in  Buenos  Aires,  or  in  Europe.  He  tries 
to  make  me  think  I  help  him,  he  is  very  grateful,  he  thanks 
me  continually.  But  he  does  not  hoodwink  me.  I  know !  I 
am  really  of  no  use.  I  might  as  well  be  in  England  or 
Philadelphia." 

"If  you  might  as  well  be  in  Asuncion,"  Francia  said, 
' '  perhaps  you  will  not  refuse  to  listen  to  what  I  came  here 
to  say  to  you." 


THE   PENINSULA  455 

Ventura  inclined  her  head,  without  speaking.  She  picked 
from  the  silver  bowl  on  the  table  a  midrib  of  i/er&a-leaf — a 
little  stick,  as  it  were,  as  long  as  her  finger — and  she  put 
the  end  of  it  between  her  teeth,  munching  on  it  medita 
tively. 

"I  have  told  you,"  Francia  began,  " how  much  I  enjoyed 
our  talks,  both  before  and  after  supper,  at  Madrina  Juana  *s 
fiesta;  how  unique  in  my  life  the  experience,  and  how  de 
lightful  !  Would  it  be  unpleasantly  presumptuous  for  me 
to  say  that  you  also  seemed  to  enjoy  talking  with  me?" 

"I  did  enjoy  every  bit  of  it,"  Ventura  declared.  "I 
have  sat  and  conversed  with  President  Madison,  with  Sec 
retary  Monroe,  with  ex-President  Jefferson ;  in  England,  I 
talked  with  the  marvellous,  though  bearish,  Mr.  Cobbett, 
with  Mr.  Canning  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  and  suffered  the 
vinous  urbanities  of  the  Prince  Regent;  in  France  I  met 
nearly  all  the  Marshals,  was  presented  to  the  great  Em 
peror  and  endured  his  monosyllabic  attempt  at  monologue ; 
I  have  encountered  no  man  as  impressive  as  yourself  and 
no  conversationalist  at  all  your  equal.  I  was  as  delighted 
as  possible." 

1  'Do  you  remember,"  Francia  queried,  "what  we  said  to 
each  other  ? ' ' 

"Not  all  of  it,"  spoke  Ventura  gravely;  "we  talked  too 
fast  and  we  said  too  much. ' ' 

*  *  Do  you  recall, ' '  he  asked,  ' '  what  you  told  me  of  court 
ship  in  England  and  in  the  United  States?" 

"In  general  I  do,"  Ventura  meditated;  "but  not  word 
for  word. ' ' 

"  I  do  not  recall  the  words  either, ' '  Francia  said, ' '  though 
I  shall  never  forget  your  tones.  What  I  remember  contin 
ually  is  the  vivid  picture  you  conjured  up  of  a  state  of 
human  society,  where  dictation  or  interference  from  par 
ents  plays  a  far  smaller  part  in  bringing  about  marriages 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  world ;  where  a  very  considerable 
proportion  of  the  couples  mate  because  they  choose  each 
other  of  their  own  volition  and  accord;  where  scores  of 
cultivated,  intellectual  men,  even  great  men,  find  helpmates 
in  all  respects  their  equals  in  culture,  intellect  and  breadth 
of  outlook  upon  life ;  where  the  mutual  comprehension  and 
sympathy  between  husband  and  wife  create  conditions  in 
which  they  are  not  only  far  happier  than  couples  mated  by 


456  EL   SUPREMO 

parental  arrangement,  but  in  which  the  man 's  greatness  of 
soul  grows  by  the  help  of  the  woman 's  fostering  care  and  is 
led  on  to  higher  flights  by  the  glow  of  her  intentions.  Do 
you  understand  ?" 

"I  begin  to  understand,  I  think/'  Ventura  confessed, 
biting  delicately  on  the  end  of  the  bit  of  yerbctrstem. 

Francia  sat  up  very  tall  in  his  chair,  his  face  framed 
in  his  abundance  of  long  dark  locks,  lit,  as  it  were,  by 
the  rosy  reflection  from  his  crimson  cloak;  his  eyes  intent 
on  Ventura's  face.  He  spoke  with  a  quiver  in  his 
voice. 

"You  have  had  the  goodness  to  compare  me  to  the  Pres 
ident  of  the  Estados  Unidos,  to  the  Prince  Eegent  of  Eng 
land,  to  the  greatest  of  all  the  Emperors  of  all  the  ages, 
and  to  tell  me  you  relished  converse  with  me  more  than 
with  any  man  you  ever  met.  I  should  be  a  dolt  if  I  did 
not  rate  myself  without  a  compeer  in  this  Paraguay;  I 
should  be  worse  than  a  numskull  did  I  not  perceive  your 
transcending  all  Paraguayan  women  far  more  manifestly 
than  I  surpass  the  men. 

'  *  I  have  thought  what  a  priceless  boon  it  would  be  for  all 
Paraguayans,  present  and  future,  what  an  invaluable  bene 
fit  it  would  be  to  the  republic,  what  a  strengthening  and 
uplift  to  its  Dictator,  what  a  renewal  of  youth,  what  an  in 
expressible  happiness  to  me  if  I  could  have  the  good  for 
tune  to  find  that  you  feel  as  I  cannot  help  feeling,  that  we 
were  made  for  each  other ;  if  I  could  persuade  you  to  con 
sider  becoming  my  wife." 

Ventura  stiffened,  and  her  eyes  flamed,  now  turned  full 
on  him. 

"I!"  she  cried.  "Your  wife!  I!  You  have  disowned, 
contemned,  even  derided  your  God ;  you  have  been  a  traitor 
to  your  King,  you  have  imbrued  your  hands  in  the  blood  of 
scores  of  innocent  victims,  you  oppress  Paraguay  with  a 
tyranny  worse  than  any  despotism  under  which  any  land 
ever  groaned,  and  you  talk  to  me  of  sympathy,  of  our  being 
made  for  each  other!  The  fiends  in  hell  would  laugh  to 
hear  you.  I  am  a  true  daughter  of  the  Church,  a  loyal 
subject  to  my  rightful  King  whatever  my  father  may  be. 
Your  sham  republic  I  despise;  I  loathe  your  sanguinary 
dictatorship;  you,  I  abhor!" 

Francia  kept  his  temper  and  controlled  his  voice.     He 


THE   PENINSULA  457, 

spoke,  a  sort  of  mixture  of  groan  and  chuckle,  his  face  con 
torted  with  a  pained  smile.  He  said : 

'  *  You  certainly  are  not  afraid  of  me ! ' ' 

"Not  a  fibre  of  me!"  Ventura  blazed  at  him. 

'  *  That  makes  me  love  you  all  the  more  fiercely, ' '  the  Dic 
tator  said,  *  *  and  want  you  all  the  more ! ' ' 

"Want  me!"  Ventura  cried.  "I  could  almost  spit  in 
your  face  to  hear  you  utter  the  words!  I  am  insulted  at 
the  suggestion.  The  thought  sickens  me ! " 

"  I  do  want  you ! "  the  Dictator  insisted. 

She  flared  at  him. 

"If  you  want  me,"  she  cried,  "why  don't  you  take  me?" 

* '  Take  you ! ' '  Francia  babbled,  shaken  from  head  to  foot, 
and  staring.  ' t  Take  you  ? ' ' 

1  i  Yes,  take  me  2 "  she  repeated.  * '  I  am  an  impotent  pris 
oner,  totally  at  your  mercy,  betrayed  by  my  very  servants, 
the  daughter  of  a  blind  and  helpless  father.  Were  you  but 
a  transitory  chieftain,  like  any  of  the  local  caudillos  of  the 
pampas,  of  Cuyo,  of  Entre  Bios,  of  the  Banda  Oriental,  no 
one  would  raise  a  finger  in  my  defence.  And  you  are  no 
mere  leader  for  the  day,  no  ordinary  ruler.  You  are  ab 
solute  lord  of  the  land  and  all  below  and  above  it,  of  tha 
wills  and  hearts  of  men.  My  father,  were  he  never  so  much 
himself,  would  be  ennobled  by  owning  you  for  a  son-in-law. 
Why  not  speak  to  him,  if  you  want  me  ?  " 

"I  have  already  told  you  why,"  Francia  said  earnestly. 
"It  is  because  I  really  want  you.  There  are  women  with 
out  number  in  Paraguay  to  be  had  for  the  asking.  I  never 
glance  at  one.  There  are  as  many  whose  parents  would  be 
enraptured  with  joy  to  think  of  being  honoured  by  me.  I 
regard  them  not.  After  Petrona  jilted  me,  twenty-one 
years  ago,  I  never  thought  of  marriage  until  I  saw  you. 
I  have  no  desire  for  women  who  throw  themselves  at  my 
head,  who  may  be  bargained  for  with  their  parents,  nor 
for  any  woman  taken  possession  of  by  main  strength.  I 
have  never  thought  of  matrimony  since  I  lost  Petrona  until 
I  met  you  and  heard  of  English  and  American  habits  of 
courtship.  That  fired  my  imagination,  the  idea  that  you 
might  spontaneously  feel  for  me  as  I  feel  for  you ;  or  that 
I  could  persuade  you." 

"Persuade!"  Ventura  sneered.  "The  word  is  ridicu 
lous.  I  have  told  you  what  I  think  of  you." 


458  EL   SUPREMO 

''You  spoke  very  severely/'  Francia  said. 

"No  more  severely,"  retorted  Ventura,  "than  is  war 
ranted  by  the  facts." 

"Facts!"  the  Dictator  cried  bitterly.  "Facts  mean 
nothing  to  partisans,  and  an  attitude  of  mind  means  every 
thing.  You  talk  of  me  like  that  fanatical  old  bald-pate 
Bermudo  Larreta.  You  and  he  see  only  your  side  of  the 
facts ;  as  Madrina  Juana  and  Gumesindo  see  only  the  other 
side.  To  them  I  am  an  archangel ;  to  the  Pelado  and  you  I 
am  an  archfiend.  The  truth  is  neither  at  the  one  extreme 
nor  the  other.  The  facts  present  more  than  one  side,  more 
than  two,  and  the  fair  interpretation  would  not  be  so  hide 
ous  as  your  estimation  of  me. " 

"That,  nevertheless,"  Ventura  maintained,  "is  and  will 
continue  my  estimate." 

"Women  have  changed  their  minds  in  this  world  before 
now,"  Francia  said. 

"And  change  them  every  day,"  spoke  Ventura,  "and 
will  for  all  the  ages  of  ages ;  but  not  I  in  regard  to  you. ' ' 

"You  might  yet  be  persuaded,  even  so,"  the  Dictator 
insisted. 

' '  Never  I ! "  Ventura  scoffed.    ' '  Never  I ! " 

The  blue  flame  of  the  spirit  lamp  under  the  steaming  urn 
gave  a  last  nicker  and  went  out. 

"Have  another  cup  of  mate?"  Francia  suggested. 

Ventura  burst  into  harsh  laughter. 

"That  is  the  way  in  Paraguay!"  she  exclaimed.  "Tra 
gedy  and  farce  together !  Love  or  hate,  life  or  death,  it  is 
always  the  gourd  of  yerba  that  intrudes.  Do  you  suppose  I 
could  relish  food  or  drink  in  the  midst  of  this  ordeal  ? ' ' 

"I  regret,"  Francia  said,  "that  it  has  been  an  ordeal. 
This  is  not  the  midst  of  it;  it  has  ended.  In  a  moment  I 
shall  escort  you  to  your  canoe.  Will  you  not  sip  a  mate 
with  me  before  we  part  ?  It  will  be  best  for  you,  you  really 
need  it." 

Ventura  inclined  her  head. 

When  they  laid  their  gourds  on  the  tray,  Francia  said : 

"I  have  one  question.  You  are  not  afraid  of  me.  I 
could  no  more  coerce  you  than  I  could  persuade  you.  Why 
did  you  not  refuse  to  talk  with  me?  Why  did  you  assent 
even  that  far?" 

Ventura  shot  one  glance  at  him  and  gazed  across  the  lake. 


THE   PENINSULA  459 

"Because,"  she  said,  "the  whole  proceeding  was  so  un 
like  the  customs  of  Paraguay,  of  Spain,  of  anywhere;  so 
altogether  idiosyncratic  of  you,  yet  so  cosmopolitan  in  fla 
vour. 

"Besides,  I  knew  I  should  relish  a  talk  with  you.  I  did 
not  foresee  what  you  were  going  to  talk  of.  I  conjectured 
you  wanted  to  question  me  as  to  the  possible  political  ac 
tivities  of  somebody  you  wrongly  thought  I  might  know 
about.  I  have  heard  of  such  things  of  Napoleon,  tales  of 
such  secret  interviews  with  women  for  that  purpose." 

Francia  stared  at  her. 

"You  thought  you  would  relish  a  conversation  with  a 
man  of  whom  you  think  as  you  have  said?" 

"Oh,"  Ventura  cried,  "one  can  enjoy  a  man's  conver 
sation  for  the  moment  and  yet  be  terribly  shocked  at  the 
suggestion  of  marrying  him!  There  is  no  necessary  con 
nection  between  enjoying  a  talk  with  a  man  and  considering 
him  as  a  husband. ' ' 

Francia  bowed  and  stood  up. 

' '  And  what  is  your  life  to  be  ? "  he  queried. 

"The  perpetual  attempt,"  Ventura  said,  "to  soothe  the 
last  days  of  a  helpless,  broken-hearted  old  man." 

"You  yourself  said,"  Francia  reminded  her,  "that  you 
did  him  no  good ;  that  you  might  as  well  be  anywhere  else 
as  at  San  Bernardino. ' ' 

' ( It  is  all  too  true, ' '  Ventura  sighed ;  * c  but  one 's  duty  is 
not  measured  by  success  or  hopefulness.  One  must  do  one 's 
duty  even  though  shuddering  at  it,  even  if  it  be  futile. ' ' 

"I  wish,"  Francia  whispered,  "that  you  realised  your 
duty  to  Paraguay  as  you  feel  it  for  your  father. ' ' 

"You  said,"  Ventura  countered,  "that  my  ordeal  was 
over." 

She  rose. 

"It  is  over,"  Francia  affirmed.  "But  I  cannot  think  of 
you  buried  at  San  Bernardino,  still  less  of  your  years  being 
wasted.  Might  he  not  regain  the  use  of  his  eyes?" 

"If  I  believed  the  nursery  tales  of  the  grotto  on  Cerro 
de  Santo  Tomas,"  Ventura  said,  "if  I  believed  that  the  true 
cross  were  really  there  and  capable  of  transporting  itself 
to  the  help  of  the  afflicted,  I  might  have  hopes  for  him.  But 
not  in  this  world  as  God  made  it  for  us  to  live  in  and  suffer 
and  pray." 


460  EL   SUPREMO 

* '  But  suppose, ' '  Francia  pressed  her,  * '  suppose  he  could 
regain  his  sight.  Suppose  it  could  he  restored  to  him/' 

"Why  torture  me  with  the  supposition?"  Ventura  pro 
tested. 

"Suppose  it,"  Francia  insisted.  "Would  you  be 
happy?" 

"Happy!"  Ventura  cried.  "Not  the  "blessed  saints  in 
Paradise,  not  the  angels  about  the  throne  of  the  Madonna 
are  happier  than  I  should  be.  What  would  I  not  do  to 
win  him  sight  again!  What  would  I  not  give!" 

"Suppose,"  Francia  held  on,  "that  it  could  be  done,  not 
by  a  miracle,  but  by  art?" 

"Why  suppose  what  only  tantalises,  only  agonises  me  to 
think  of,  it  is  so  impossible?" 

"Suppose  it,"  Francia  persisted.  "Suppose  any  skill 
of  man  could  bring  it  about?" 

Ventura  clasped  her  hands,  fervently,  her  eyes  gazing  up 
wards. 

"Oh,"  she  cried,  "how  grateful  I  should  be !" 

"Suppose  I,"  Francia  summed  up,  "could  bring  it 
about?" 

Ventura's  gaze  met  his  full.  She  took  a  short  step  to 
wards  him. 

"You!"  she  cried.  "Power  has  intoxicated  your  wits. 
You  are  supreme  over  men,  you  can  foretell  eclipses,  but 
you  cannot  work  miracles,  you  cannot  remove  the  curse  of 
God!" 

"Suppose  I  could  cause  this  particular  miracle,  if  you 
call  it  such?"  Francia  persevered. 

"The  supposition,"  Ventura  breathed  sadly,  "is  incon 
ceivable.  But  were  it  possible,  were  it  to  come  to  pass, 
there  would  be  no  limits  to  my  gratitude." 

Francia  spoke  in  French  : 

"Mademoiselle,"  he  said,  "the  morning  grows  hot.  Your 
canoe  waits.  Let  me  conduct  you  to  it. ' ' 


CATARACTS  461 

CHAPTER   XXXIII 

CATARACTS 

(i) 

ONE  evening  before  mid- January  Beltran  sat  with  Fran- 
cia  over  the  cleared  supper-table  beneath  the  orange 
trees  in  the  Palacio  garden. 

"You  perfectly  understand?"  the  Dictator  queried.' 

"Entirely,"  Beltran  replied. 

'  *  To  make  sure  that  you  remember  what  I  have  said  and 
that  I  have  not  forgotten  something,  I  will  go  over  it  all 
again,"  said  Francia. 

"You  will  take  as  many  men  as  you  need,  I  leave  the 
number  as  the  choice  of  them  to  you.  Be  sure  all  are  the 
right  sort.  They  must  not  only  be  obedient,  but  reliable 
when  out  of  sight.  There  must  be  no  roughness.  And 
they  must  be  discreet,  still-tongued  fellows.  It  is  most 
important  that  no  one  whatever  be  mishandled,  not  only 
not  the  principals,  but  no  servant,  no  casual  wayfarer.  It 
must  be  done  deftly  and  neatly.  Likewise,  absolute  silence 
must  be  observed  by  all  of  them  afterwards,  you  must  im 
press  that  on  them. 

"Requisition  Don  Cipriano  Domeque's  family  travelling 
carriage.  The  Velarde  carriage  may  not  be  usable.  Take 
Domeque's  coachman;  he  is  an  unsurpassable  driver. 

"Go  by  the  upper  ford  of  the  Rio  Salado,  otherwise  I 
leave  the  choice  of  the  route  entirely  to  you. 

"You  will  need  not  a  little  diplomacy.  There  must  be 
no  physical  force  used;  they  must  be  induced,  not  com 
pelled.  There  again  I  depend  upon  your  common-sense. 

"Do  not  hurry  them.  Let  them  take  reasonable  time. 
And  travel  deliberately,  neither  too  fast  nor  too  slow. 

"Bring  them  safe  and  as  little  angered  as  may  be. 

"I  believe  that  is  all. 

1 1  You  perfectly  understand  ? ' ' 

"Completely!"  Beltran  repeated.  "But  permit  me  to 
suggest  one  modification  of  the  arrangements. ' ' 

"What  is  that?"  the  Dictator  asked  suspiciously. 

"Grandmother  Juana,"  said  Beltran,  "has  a  travelling 


462  EL    SUPREMO 

carriage,  though  she  has  never  used  it  since  I  began  to  re 
member.  It  is  in  good  condition,  for  I  had  it  thoroughly 
gone  over  and  put  in  perfect  order  just  after  I  came  home. 
I  can  take  that  without  requisitioning  it,  without  anybody 
knowing  it  is  out  of  the  shed,  not  even  Abuela  Juana.  If  I 
requisition  Don  Cipriano's  old  rattle-trap,  everybody  will 
know  it,  for  we  cannot  muzzle  all  the  Domeque  servants.  I 
can  borrow  his  coachman  without  causing  any  suspicions, 
on  some  pretext  or  other;  I  can  think  up  the  pretext  be 
tween  now  and  then.  I  think  that  will  work  smoother." 
"Good  idea!"  said  Francia.  "I  agree.  Do  so." 


(2) 

The  morning  after  Beltran,  with  sixty  hussars  convoy 
ing  the  Isquibel-Jaray  travelling  coach,  had  left  Asuncion, 
a  messenger  from  the  Palacio  entered  Dr.  Bargas'  wine 
shop,  seeking  "Don  Tomas  Parlett." 

The  little  surgeon  broke  the  seal  of  the  missive  and  read 
aloud. 

"Humph!"  he  grunted.  "Listen  to  that!  'The  Most 
High  commands  you  to  come  and  see  him ! '  The  cheek  of 
the  old  boy !  He  wastes  no  politeness  on  me !  Well,  I  sup 
pose  I  must  be  on  the  move,  or  I  '11  be  shot  for  tardiness  at 
the  Palacio,  as  I  used  to  be  birched  for  being  late  to  school. ' ' 

At  the  Government  House  he  found  Francia  in  a  high 
good  humour,  for  he  not  only  received  him  ceremoniously, 
addressed  him  as  "Senor  Don  Tomas"  and  invited  him  to 
be  seated,  after  offering  him  snuff,  but  himself  took  three 
huge  pinches  in  succession. 

"Sefior  Don  Tomas,"  he  said,  "am  I  right  in  consider 
ing  you  an  adept  at  all  kinds  of  surgery  ? ' ' 

" Excelentisimo  Senor,"  Parlett  replied,  "you  do  me  too 
much  honour.  I  have  been  instructed  in  all  branches  of 
surgery,  have  watched,  at  the  London  Surgeon's  College, 
operations  of  all  sorts,  am  familiar  with  the  procedure  in  all 
kinds  of  cases  where  surgical  interference  is  warranted, 
have  had  experience  as  an  assistant  and  afterwards  as  chief 
in  nearly  every  variety  of  operations,  and  em  more  than 
moderately  expert ;  but  I  do  not  call  myself  an  adept  at  all 
departments  of  surgery.  To  be  adept  at  one  requires  a 


CATARACTS  463 

lifetime  of  devotion  to  that  one  specialty.    I  can  hardly  say 
I  have  made  a  specialty  of  any." 

11  Modesty  aside,"  said  Francia,  "you  are  a  surgeon  of 
unusual  breadth  of  experience  and  perfection  of  skill  ?  Is 
not  that  the  fact?" 

"Excellency,"  said  Parlett,  "you  do  me  too  much  hon 
our!  But  I  will  say  this:  I  would  be  regarded  as  better 
than  the  general  run  of  surgeons  and  not  far  inferior  to 
the  best  in  any  part  of  the  world;  and  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  my  equal  south  of  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn 
in  America,  Africa  or  Australia,  or  afloat  on  the  high 
seas. ' ' 

"Enough!"  said  Francia.  "And  how  are  you  on  sur 
gery  of  the  eye  ?  We  all  know  your  luck  at  finding  piques 
in  pretty  girls'  eyes  and  effecting  instantaneous  relief,  but 
how  are  you  on  the  eye-department  of  actual  surgery?" 

"Ophthalmology,"  said  Parlett,  "was  my  favourite 
study,  and  I  came  nearer  making  a  specialty  of  that  branch 
of  my  art  than  of  any  other." 

"Suppose,"  the  Dictator  said,  "you  were  confronted 
with  a  case  of  blindness  which,  in  your  judgment,  demanded 
surgical  aid  and  promised  a  cure  if  operated  upon;  would 
you  undertake  it  ? " 

"Yes  and  no,"  Parlett  replied. 

"You  are  not  intelligible!"  Francia  rebuked  him.  "Be 
clear!" 

"Your  Excellency,"  the  surgeon  amplified,  "I  should 
undertake  it,  but  not  at  once." 

He  stretched  out  his  hand  and  regarded  the  finger-ends, 
Francia 's  eyes  following  his. 

"See  'em  tremble!"  Parlett  exclaimed.  "I'm  not  fit  to 
operate  for  a  day  or  two,  hand  not  steady." 

"What  will  make  it  steady?"  the  Dictator  enquired. 

"Nothing  is  necessary,  Excellency,"  said  Parlett,  "but 
rest  and  sleep,  moderate  food  and  a  reasonable  allowance  of 
wine.  I  drink  too  much." 

* '  What  do  you  mean  by  a  reasonable  allowance  of  wine  ?  " 
Francia  queried. 

"Why,"  said  Parlett,  "say  a  pint  at  dinner  and  another 
at  supper." 

"Would  two  days  on  that  allowance  make  you  fit  to 
operate?" 


464  EL   SUPREMO 

"It  should/'  Parlett  gloomed;  "but  God  knows,  I've 
been  soaked  for  months. ' ' 

"A  week  should  be  enough,"  the  Dictator  hazarded. 

"A  week  would  put  me  fit  enough  for  the  most  delicate 
operation  ever  performed  by  human  skill. ' ' 

"Can  you  ration  yourself  so  rigidly  for  that  length  of 
time?"  Francia  demanded. 

*  *  God  knows ! ' '  Parlett  ejaculated  again.  '  *  I  could  try ;  but 
I'm  not  sanguine  of  my  self-control,  I  don't  feel  certain." 

"Let  us  make  certain!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "Senor 
Don  Tomas,  consider  yourself  under  arrest!" 

Parlett 's  face  went  mottled. 

* '  Not  a  word ! ' '  the  Dictator  warned  him.  ' '  Not  one 
word !  Keep  your  seat,  Senor  Don  Tomas ! ' ' 

He  called  Bopi  and  sent  for  Lieutenant  Ortellado.  "When 
he  appeared,  saluted  and  stood  at  attention,  the  Dictator 
said: 

"Don  Aquiles,  listen  attentively  to  me.  I  am  about  to 
entrust  you  with  a  delicate,  though  not  difficult,  commis 
sion.  You  are  to  take  charge  of  Don  Tomas  here.  He  is  to 
be  under  arrest  only  so  far  as  I  shall  specify.  Conduct  him 
respectfully  to  his  house.  Search  the  entire  house,  out 
buildings,  patio,  courtyard  and  yard — in  short,  the  whole 
property. 

"In  this  search  you  must  not,  except  as  I  partic 
ularise,  destroy,  remove,  injure  or  as  much  as  disarrange 
any  single  article  among  the  possessions  of  Don  Tomas,  not 
even  the  smallest  or  least  valuable.  Your  search  is  to  be 
directed  solely  to  making  sure  that  no  wine,  chichd,  cana, 
aguardiente,  cognac,  cordial,  or  any  other  alcoholic  drink, 
even  in  the  smallest  quantity,  exists  or  remains  on  the 
premises.  If  any  such  liquids  are  found,  you  are  to  have 
them  carefully  carried  away  and  sequestered  under  guard, 
to  be  returned  undiminished  to  their  owner  when  your  pe 
riod  of  guardianship  ends. 

"After  you  have  made  sure  that  not  a  drop  of  any  in 
toxicating  beverage,  even  to  the  mildest,  remains  stored  or 
concealed  anywhere  on  the  premises,  you  are  to  make  the 
doctor  absolutely  free  of  them.  He  is  to  move  about  in 
his  own  curtilage  as  he  pleases ;  but  if  he  attempts  to  cross 
the  boundary  lines  of  his  property  in  any  direction,  you 
are  to  shoot  him  without  mercy. 


CATARACTS  465 

"You  are  to  make  sure  that  his  servants  treat  him  with 
every  attention  and  respect,  and  that  all  his  desires  in  the 
way  of  drink  other  than  as  I  have  particularised,  and  in 
respect  to  food  of  all  kinds,  are  fully  gratified.  You  are  to 
admit  to  him  any  and  all  visitors  who  may  wish  to  see  him, 
but  beware  of  letting  a  drop  of  wine  or  other  drink  be 
surreptitiously  conveyed  to  him!  Search  every  incomer 
carefully. 

"You  are  yourself  to  have  procured  for  him,  from  the 
wine-shop  of  Dr.  Bargas,  two  pints  of  wine  each  day,  of 
whatever  sort  he  may  himself  prefer  and  select.  You  are 
to  see  that  Don  Tomas  is  given  one  pint  each  day  with  his 
dinner  and  one  pint  with  his  supper.  If  he  drinks  the 
pint,  well  and  good.  If  he  leaves  any,  see  that  it  is  con 
sumed  by  some  one  else  or  poured  out.  Do  not  let  any  ac 
cumulate  so  that  he  may  have  the  chance  to  drink  more 
than  a  pint  at  any  one  time. 

* '  Don  Aquiles,  I  have  selected  you  for  this  duty  because 
of  your  excellent  sense  and  fidelity.  Be  specially  careful. 
If  Don  Tomas  escapes,  if  he  becomes  intoxicated  while  un 
der  your  care,  you  shall  indubitably  be  shot.  If  he  re 
ports  any  incivility  of  yours  or  of  any  of  your  men,  or  if 
his  visitors  report  any,  you  shall  smart  for  it.  The  object 
of  my  arrangements  is  to  bring  the  Doctor  into  the  best 
possible  condition  of  mind  and  body.  If  he  is  fretted  or 
dissatisfied,  my  purpose  will  be  thwarted.  Do  you  perfectly 
understand  ? ' ' 

"I  think  so,  Excellency,"  said  Ortellado,  "and  I  think  I 
can  give  a  good  account  of  my  commission  and  report  Don 
Tomas  in  fine  fettle  when  you  call  for  him. ' ' 

"Don  Aquiles,"  Francia  twinkled,  "you  are  a  man  of 
sense." 

Then  he  turned  to  Parlett. 

"Sefior  Don  Tomas,"  he  said,  "I  have  purposely  given 
my  orders  in  your  hearing.  They  are  devised  with  the  ob 
ject  of  having  you  in  the  pink  of  good  form  for  a  possible 
eye-operation.  Are  they  well-conceived  ? ' ' 

"Damned  well-conceived"  growled  Parlett. 

* '  That  is  English,  Sefior  Don  Tomas, ' '  the  Dictator  said, 
"but  I  understood  you." 

"And  I  understand  you,  Excelentisimo  Sefior,"  Parlett 
retorted,  "and  better  than  you  suppose.  I'll  put  up  with 


466  EL   SUPREMO 

my  confinement  and  get  my  instruments  in  superlative  con* 
dition  for  an  operation  if  it  comes  to  that.  I  am  not  such 
a  fool  as  I  look.  I  wasn  't  born  last  night.  I  go  in  training 
under  duress,  but  as  willingly  as  an  old  sot  could.  I'll  be 
ready,  and  I  won't  fail  you." 

1  'That,"  said  Francia,  "is  the  way  to  talk!" 

And  he  took  a  prodigious  pinch  of  snuff. 


(3) 

Beltran  made  his  dispositions  for  surrounding  Estancia 
de  San  Bernardino  as  methodically  and  cautiously  as  if  he 
were  investing  a  fortress.  The  precautions  proved  wholly 
unnecessary.  After  his  cordon  had  been  formed  and  in 
spected,  his  two  pickets  on  the  lake-front  and  three  on  the 
roads  to  Altos,  Atira  and  Caacupe  established,  he  deliber 
ately  approached  the  estancia  with  the  travelling-coach  and 
twenty  cavalrymen.  Leaving  the  carriage  and  its  five 
horses  just  out  of  earshot  with  four  troopers  to  watch  it,  he 
advanced  with  the  rest  to  the  mansion  itself. 

He  found  Ventura  seated  by  her  father  under  the  cor 
ridor.  -Don  Toribio  sat,  dejected  and  torpid,  utterly  unoc 
cupied,  not  even  smoking.  He  did  not  seem  to  have  devel 
oped  the  acuteness  of  hearing  usual  in  the  blind,  and  gave 
no  sign  of  being  aware  of  the  approach  of  seventeen  horse 
men. 

Ventura  stood  up  from  her  chair,  a  sort  of  icicle  of  fire, 
blazing  with  frigid  wrath. 

"You!"  she  cried,  in  French.  "A  henchman  of  the 
usurper!  You  have  come  to  arrest  us!" 

"Mademoiselle,"  said  Beltran  laconically,  "I  am  a  sol 
dier.  I  obey  orders." 

"Father,"  said  Ventura  in  Spanish,  "here  is  Don  Bel* 
tran  Jaray,  come  to  visit  us." 

Don  Toribio  stood  up,  bowing. 

"Senor  Don  Beltran,"  he  said,  "I  am  honoured.  Your 
father  was  my  good  friend.  My  house  is  at  your  disposi 
tion.  But,  as  you  may  behold,  I  am  afflicted  by  the  heavy 
hand  of  God.  Your  welcome,  your  entertainment,  must  de 
volve  entirely  upon  my  daughter,  as  I  am  unable  to  see." 

He  relapsed  into  his  chair  and  apathy. 


CATARACTS  467 

Ventura,  still  cold  and  scornful,  beckoned  Beltran  to  the 
end  of  the  verandah.  Standing  there  she  said: 

'  *  Tell  me  your  orders. ' ' 

Beltran  told  the  details  of  the  injunctions  laid  upon 
him. 

"I  can  be  ready  to  set  out  by  to-morrow  morning/ '  she 
said.  "Will  that  be  soon  enough?" 

"The  day  after,  if  you  prefer,"  said  Beltran  gallantly. 

"Best  have  it  over  with  at  once,"  Ventura  concluded. 
"Let  it  be  to-morrow." 

Don  Toribio,  when  the  matter  was  explained  to  him, 
remained  wholly  indifferent. 

"A  blind  man,"  said  he,  "is  a  log,  a  lump,  a  breathing 
corpse.  It  matters  not  where  I  am,  I  cannot  conceive  of 
what  use  I  can  be  to  the  nation  or  of  what  interest  to  the 
Dictator.  But  if  he  sends  for  me  I  go.  If  it  be  for  the 
patria,  I  would  endure  any  discomfort.  If  it  be  his  order, 
I  ask  no  questions;  he  is  by  law  and  right  supreme.  Let 
us  make  ready." 

"Senor  Don  Beltran,"  said  Ventura,  "my  father  has 
placed  our  house  at  your  disposition.  Select  what  room 
pleases  you  and  occupy  it.  I  shall  try  to  do  my  duty  as  a 
daughter  and  as  a  hostess.  Dispose  your  men  in  the  out 
buildings  at  your  discretion." 

She  remained  cold  and  haughty,  presided  at  dinner  and 
supper  with  perfect  courtesy,  but  without  a  flicker  of  kind 
ness,  and  maintained  her  chilly  distance  during  their  jour 
ney  to  Asuncion. 

The  Velarde  Mansion,  a  long,  more  or  less  rectangular 
congeries  of  buildings  northeast  of  the  Franciscan  Monas 
tery,  they  found  open  and  ready  to  receive  them.  Francia 
had  summoned  to  the  Palacio  the  caretaker  and  had  or 
dered  him  and  his  family  to  prepare  the  house  at  once  for 
the  reception  of  its  master  and  mistress.  He  had  also 
called  in  the  services  of  Dona  Juana  Isquibel,  who  had 
already  and  at  once  divined  the  destination  of  her  travel 
ling  carriage.  She  had  had  every  cranny  of  the  establish 
ment  thoroughly  aired  and  cleaned  after  more  than  five 
years  of  total  disuse,  had  put  the  furniture  and  utensils  in 
the  best  of  order  and  had  even  rooted  out  of  Don  Meliton 
Isasi's  warehouse  the  cases  Ventura  had  brought  with  her,- 
and  had  their  contents  disposed  about  the  house,  including 


468  EL   SUPREMO 

a  new  German  pianoforte,  not  greatly  the  worse  for  nearly 
two  years  of  tran^ortation  and  storage,  with  much  sea 
air. 

After  the  Velardes  were  settled  in  their  town  ahode  and 
had  had  one  day's  rest,  a  stream  of  callers  poured  into  the 
house  from  early  morning  till  the  siesta  hour,  from  the 
siesta  hour  until  bedtime.  Don  Toribio,  at  first  consis 
tently,  later  obstinately,  declined  to  receive  any  visitors. 
Ventura  refused  no  one.  Not  only  every  friend  she  had  in 
Asuncion  called  to  see  her,  but  she  found  herself  fairly 
overwhelmed  by  overlapping  visits  from  daughters  of  her 
mother's  friends  and  from  her  merest  and  most  distant 
acquaintances. 

Dona  Pancha  Jovellanos  had  always  been  more  or  less 
hostile  to  her,  and,  after  a  dozen  cattish  innuendoes  from 
her  caller,  Ventura  could  not  resist  remarking : 

' '  I  have  had  a  great  many  visitors  to-day.  I  had  no  idea 
I  had  so  many  friends.  I  am  exceedingly  flattered.  I 
should  have  expected  that  we  would  be  shunned,  as  having 
returned  to  the  city  under  a  sort  of  semi-arrest.  Many 
of  my  visitors,  I  should  have  thought,  would  have  been 
afraid  to  risk  the  Dictator's  displeasure  by  calling  on 
us." 

"We  were  not  left  in  the  dark,"  chuckled  her  plump 
visitor.  "El  Supremo  himself  seems  to  have  anticipated 
some  such  general  state  of  mind.  He  forestalled  any  sim 
ilar  tendency  by  sending  Gumesindo  on  a  tour  which  in 
cluded  every  household  of  any  wealth  or  pretensions.  He 
explained  three-score  times  to  every  gentleman  in  Asun- 
sion,  as  he  did  to  Renato,  that  Don  Toribio  Velarde  was 
under  the  special  protection  of  the  Dictator  and  enjoyed 
his  favour  to  the  highest  degree ;  that  if  any  one  omitted  to 
call  upon  him  it  would  be  regarded  as  a  personal  affront 
aimed  at  the  Dictator.  After  your  spectacular  communion 
we  needed  no  such  explicit  commands,  we  should  have 
answered  to  the  faintest  hint.  Everybody  hastened  to  call 
on  you.  No  one  has  failed  to  come." 

Ventura's  countenance  displayed  very  mingled  emotions. 
Surprise  quickly  effaced  the  rest. 

' '  If  that  is  true, ' '  she  cried,  * '  why  has  not  Juanita  been 
here?  I  have  particularly  missed  Juanita." 

' '  Don  Manuel, ' '  Dona  Pancha  said,  * '  was  banished  with 


CATARACTS  469 

all  his  family  more  than  six  weeks  ago.  Five  weeks  ago 
yesterday  they  sailed  in  the  San  Jose.ty 

"For  Buenos  Aires?"  Ventura  queried. 

' '  No, ' '  Dona  Pancha  replied,  *  *  for  Quarepoti. ' ' 

"Up  the  river?"  exclaimed  Ventura.  "Where  were 
they  banished  to?" 

"To  Curuguatay,"  Dona  Pancha  told  her. 

"Why?"  she  asked. 

1 '  Why  ? ' '  Dona  Pancha  cried.  ' '  Dear  child,  nobody  asks 
why  anybody  is  fined  or  imprisoned  or  banished  or  shot. 
They  just  are  and  that  is  all.  No  explanation  is  ever  given, 
seldom  any  charge  made." 

Ventura  fell  very  thoughtful. 

When  the  flood  of  visitors  had  thinned  to  a  trickle  and 
run  dry,  Beltran  called  early  in  the  morning,  on  official 
business,  the  servant  said. 

Ventura  entered  the  sola  frigidly  and  welcomed  him 
ceremoniously,  as  a  total  stranger.  He  enquired  formally 
after  her  father's  health,  and  said: 

' '  I  have  been  sent  to  announce  that  El  Supremo  himself 
will  visit  Don  Toribio  this  afternoon  just  after  the  siesta 
hour,  riding  round  past  here  on  his  way  to  the  suburban 
barracks.  He  will  bring  with  him  to  examine  Don  Toribio  7s 
eyes,  Don  Tomas  Parlett," 

Ventura,  her  face  expressing  conflicting  sensations,  in 
stantly  shifted  from  Spanish  to  French. 

"Parlett!"  she  cried.  "The  English  surgeon?  That 
chubby  little  toper?" 

Beltran  chuckled. 

"Chubby,"  he  agreed,  "but  no  toper  just  at  present." 

He  detailed  Francia's  precautions. 

Ventura's  cheeks  flamed. 

"He  is  in  earnest,"  she  exclaimed.  "He  really  has 
hopes !  He  thinks  there  is  a  chance  for  Father ! 

She  sat  and  gazed  at  the  parti-coloured  floor. 


(4) 

Or  tell  ado,  with  four  dragoons  convoying  the  surgeon, 
reached  the  Velarde  mansion  some  time  before  Francia. 
Ventura  received  Parlett  as  if  he  had  been  an  old  friend 


>  > 


470  EL   SUPREMO 

and  chatted  with  him  until  one  of  the  peons,  who  had  been 
posted  near  the  church  of  San  Bias,  ran  in  to  announce 
that  the  Dictator's  escort  of  lancers  was  dehouching  from 
the  Plaza  into  Calle  Comer cio.  Then  she  went  out  to  per 
suade  her  father  to  come  into  the  sola. 

Francia  put  off  ceremonial  when  he  had  dismounted  at 
the  patio  gateway.  He  entered  just  as  if  he  had  been  an 
ordinary  caller.  Don  Toribio  greeted  him  languidly  and 
listened  in  silence  while  he  explained  why  he  had  come. 

When  the  august  visitor  paused  his  host  developed  unex 
pected  opposition. 

"God,"  he  said,  "has  stricken  me  blind.  It  is  his  will 
that  I  remain  blind.  Were  it  his  will  that  I  see,  I  should 
have  my  sight.  It  would  be  blasphemous  and  sacrilegious 
to  interfere  with  the  will  of  God  by  surgery." 

' '  The  will  of  God, ' '  said  Francia,  ' '  has  given  Don  Tomas 
his  knowledge  and  skill.  To  decline  to  avail  yourself  of 
Don  Tomas  is  to  reject  impiously  and  presumptuously  the 
good  gifts  of  your  Heavenly  Father.  The  will  of  God  has 
made  me  Dictator.  I  utter  the  will  of  God  when  I  com 
mand  you  to  submit  to  the  ministrations  of  Don  Tomas." 

" Excelentisimo  Seiior,"  said  Don  Toribio,  "you  speak 
like  an  inspired  prophet  of  God.  I  acquiesce.  Do  with 
me  as  you  will." 

1 '  I  speak, ' '  Francia  growled,  ' '  like  a  man  with  common- 
sense.  I  am  pleased  that  you  are  tractable.  I  should  have 
been  compelled  to  offer  you  the  choice  between  putting 
yourself  in  the  hands  of  Don  Tomas  and  being  shot  as  a 
rebel." 

Parlett  examined  Don  Toribio,  questioned  him  and  re 
ported  : 

1  i  Simple  as  a,  b,  ab !  Easy  as  lying.  I  '11  have  him  seeing 
this  day  week. ' ' 

"Explain  yourself,"  Francia  commanded.  "Be  lucid; 
be  intelligible !" 

1 '  Habit, ' '  said  Parlett ; ' '  merely  habit.  Lifelong  habit  of 
a  surgeon  to  give  no  explanations  in  the  hearing  of  the 
patient.  Generally  it  is  a  bad  thing  to  do.  The  exception 
proves  the  rule;  it  is  all  right  in  this  case.  Don  Toribio 
can  hear  all  that  I  have  to  say,  as  there  is  nothing  but 
encouragement  in  any  of  it. 

"As  fur  as  I  can  see  the  trouble  is  merely  cataract  of 


CATARACTS  471 

both  eyes.  He  says  he  could  still  distinguish  the  daylight 
from  darkness  only  six  months  ago;  that  a  year  ago  he 
could  make  out  vaguely  a  human  form  between  him  and 
the  light,  say  at  noon  when  he  was  in  his  chair  under  the 
verandah  and  a  servant  stood  against  the  sky;  that  a  year 
and  a  half  ago,  he  could  tell  a  man  from  a  woman  ten  feet 
off.  That  argues  that  there  is  nothing  wrong  with  the 
optic  nerve  or  with  the  retina;  that  when  we  remove  the 
cataracts  by  extracting  the  lenses  we  shall  find  all  the  other 
parts  of  the  eye  in  normal  condition,  and  sight  will  be  com 
pletely  restored.  The  popular  notion  about  the  incurability 
of  cataracts  originates  mostly  from  the  absence  of  surgeons 
competent  to  deal  with  them ;  the  rest  of  it  comes  from  the 
circumstance  that  in  cataract  cases  of  long  standing,  where 
the  patient  has  been  blind,  say,  ten  years,  the  retina  de 
teriorates  from  lack  of  stimulus,  as  no  light  falls  on  it.  In 
such  cases,  even  if  the  cataracts  are  successfully  removed, 
the  sufferer  is  hopelessly  blind.  If  Don  Toribio  could  tell 
day  from  night  six  months  ago  his  retina  has  not  yet  lost 
any  of  its  tone.  He  will  see  the  moment  the  obstruction  is 
out  of  the  way  and  his  eyes  healed." 

"You  propose  to  remove  the  cataracts  entirely ?"  Fran- 
cia  queried,  meditatively. 

'By  extracting  the  lenses,  as  I  said,"  Parlett  replied. 

"I  thought,"  Francia  said  slowly,  "that  the  usual  prac 
tice  was  merely  to  push  the  cataracts  out  of  the  line  of 
vision." 

' '  That 's  couching, ' '  said  Parlett ;  ' l  you  're  correct.  It  is 
the  fashionable  device  and  prevalent  method.  I'll  explain 
why.  In  the  first  place,  extracting  the  lenses  calls  for  far 
more  deftness  and  skill  from  the  operator.  In  the  second 
place,  the  risk  of  suppuration  is  much  less  in  couching,  as 
the  incision  is  only  a  small  puncture.  But  couching  is  a 
clumsy,  blundering  operation  at  best  and  is  really  a  ques 
tionable  practice.  I  call  it  downright  unsound  practice- 
And  these  are  my  reasons  : 

"The  couching  needle  has  to  be  inserted  in  the  white 
of  the  eye,  the  sclerotic,  about  three  lines  from  the  outer 
edge  of  the  iris,  of  the  coloured  part  of  the  eye.  You 
can 't  insert  it  above  or  below,  because  of  the  likelihood  of 
the  lids  pinching  together  convulsively  and  wrenching  the 
fceedle.  You  can 't  insert  it  on  the  inside  of  the  eye,  because 


472  EL   SUPREMO 

the  bridge  of  the  nose  is  in  the  way.  You  have  to  insert  it 
on  the  outside  towards  the  temple.  That  is  very  close  to 
the  ciliary  nerve,  the  tenderest  point  in  the  eye.  I  have 
heard  a  man  of  thirty,  a  healthy,  resolute  patient,  scream 
with  pain  when  a  fool  of  an  operator  pierced  the  ciliary 
nerve.  There's  no  sense  in  hurting  a  patient  for  nothing. 
It's  just  as  easy  to  pick  out  the  least  sensitive  part  of  the 
eye  to  cut  into.  That's  what  I  do. 

"Then,  after  your  couching  is  performed  successfully 
and  the  cloudy  lens  pushed  downward  and  backward  out 
of  the  line  of  vision,  what  have  you  done?  Introduced  a 
foreign  body  into  the  eye,  for  a  lens  out  of  place  is  a  foreign 
body.  What 's  the  result  ?  In  two  years,  or  at  most  three, 
the  eye  inflames,  bursts  or  shrivels,  and  the  victim  is  blind 
for  life.  Most  surgeons  care  nothing  for  that  certain  up 
shot.  They  perform  the  easy  operation  of  couching.  In 
five  to  ten  days  the  eyes  are  healed,  the  patient  can  see. 
He  is  grateful.  He  pays  well.  Off  goes  the  surgeon.  When 
the  trouble  comes  two  or  three  years  later  no  one  guesses 
that  it  is  the  direct,  inevitable  sequel  of  a  bad  operation. 
It  is  thought  of  as  a  fresh  visitation  and  the  surgeon  gets 
no  blame. 

"Now  what  do  I  do? 

"I  take  a  triangular  knife,  not  a  couching  needle.  The 
point  of  the  knife  is  inserted  not  in  the  tender  sclerotic,  but 
in  the  cornea,  the  transparent  portion  over  the  coloured  iris 
and  black  pupil.  The  cornea  has  hardly  more  feeling  than 
one's  finger  nails,  to  which  it  is  related  in  nature  and 
structure.  The  sweep  of  the  knife  slits  the  cornea  all 
across  with  a  semi-circular  incision  along  its  upper  margin 
close  to  the  rim  of  the  iris.  Instantly  laying  down  the 
knife,  I  take  up  a  little  instrument  like  a  bit  of  fine  wire 
with  a  tiny  hook  at  the  end.  Inserting  this  in  the  incision, 
I  tear  open  the  capsule  of  the  lens.  Withdrawing  the  hook, 
I  lay  it  down. 

"I  then  squeeze  the  eyeball.  Before  operating  I  have 
treated  the  eye  with  what  we  call  a  mydriatic,  a  solution 
of  nightshade,  which  causes  the  pupil  to  dilate  to  its  utmost 
expansion.  The  moment  I  press  on  the  eyeball  the  solid 
lens  pops  out  through  the  dilated  pupil  and  the  incision. 
Then  the  other  eye  is  operated  on  similarly.  It  requires 
very  much  less  time  to  perform  the  operation  than  to  tell 


CATARACTS  473 

of  it.  As  the  cornea  has  little  sensibility  and  the  capsule 
none  at  all,  the  patient  suffers  less  pain  than  from  pricking 
his  finger  on  a  thorn.  The  eyes  are  bandaged.  In  five  to- 
eight  days  the  bandages  are  taken  off.  The  patient  can 
see." 

"But,"  Francia  demurred,  "how  about  the  risk  of  sup 
puration  ? ' ' 

"Ah!"  exclaimed  Parlett.  "That  is  where  Paraguay 
leads  the  world.  With  Guarani  eye-lotion  in  which  to  dip 
my  instruments  and  my  hands,  with  which  to  bathe  the 
eyes,  with  which  to  soak  the  pads  and  bandages,  the  risk 
of  suppuration  vanishes  altogether." 

"How  long  will  it  take,"  Francia  queried,  "to  prepare 
the  patient  for  the  operation?" 

"He's  in  splendid  condition,"  Parlett  declared.  "All 
he  needs  is  forty-eight  hours  of  low  diet.  I'll  operate  the 
day  after  to-morrow,  if  the  weather  is  fair;  if  not,  the 
first  bright  day." 

Don  Toribio  here  spoke  up. 

' '  Senor  Don  Tomas, ' '  he  said,  * '  pardon  me,  but  I  am  told 
that  you  are  a  heretic." 

"I  am,"  said  Parlett  shortly. 

"  Excelentisimo  Senor,"  said  Don  Toribio,  "it  seems  to 
me  that  a  true  son  of  the  church  should  not  place  himself 
in  the  hands  of  a  heretic  without  the  presence  and  prayers 
of  some  priest." 

Francia  looked  at  Parlett. 

"Priests,"  the  little  man  exploded,  "can  do  no  harm. 
Have  a  dozen,  if  you  like.  Have  the  Bishop  and  the  Vicar 
General  and  all  four  Priors.  Only  let  them  keep  their 
distance  and  not  pray  too  loud.  I'll  operate  in  the  patio, 
on  the  shady  side,  early  in  the  morning,  so  placing  Don 
Toribio 's  chair  and  mine  that  we'll  be  just  barely  in  the 
shadow;  that'll  give  me  the  best  light.  You  can  assemble 
all  the  ecclesiastics  of  Asuncion,  all  the  clergy  of  Paraguay, 
all  the  friars  in  the  world,  on  the  other  side  of  the  patio. 
They  can't  do  any  harm  as  long  as  they  stand  still  and 
don't  speak  to  me  directly." 

"Don  Tomas,"  Francia  smiled,  "you  may  be  sure  no  one 
will  speak  to  you  directly  or  otherwise  interfere.  For  I 
myself  mean  to  be  present,  to  ensure  you  every  protection. 
I  shall  not,  however,  sit  on  the  other  side  of  the  patio.. 


474  EL   SUPREMO 

But  you  may  yourself  designate  the  location  you  prefer  for 
my  chair." 

' t  Excelentisimo  Senor, ' '  said  Parlett,  * '  I  appreciate  your 
•condescension  and  shall  be  greatly  assisted  by  your  pres 
ence." 

"I  comprehend,"  said  Francia  grimly. 

Parlett  winked. 

He  then  gave  directions  to  Ventura  about  the  prepara 
tion  of  bandages  and  about  her  father's  diet  until  the  opera 
tion. 

When  he  paused  Francia  said : 

"Don  Tomas,  you  may  wait  for  me  in  the  patio." 

When  the  Dictator  came  out  he  asked : 

*  *  Has  everything  been  provided  for  ?  Are  you  sure  noth 
ing  has  been  forgotten?" 

"Nothing  has  been  forgotten,"  said  Parlett,  "but  one 
further  injunction  should  be  given  to  Don  Aquiles." 

"What  is  that?"  the  Dictator  queried. 

"Tell  him  to  let  me  have  no  wine  at  all  from  now  until 
after  I  have  operated  on  Don  Toribio, ' '  said  Parlett.  ' '  Tell 
him  to  make  sure  I  don 't  even  smell  wine ! ' ' 

Francia  looked  frankly  astonished. 

"I  thought,"  he  said,  "that  wine  in  moderation  was 
beneficial. ' ' 

' '  Don 't  you  fool  yourself, ' '  said  Parlett.  ' l  Alcohol  never 
helped  anybody,  except  wretches  perishing  of  cold  or  expo 
sure.  The  smallest  quantity  impairs  muscular  efficiency." 

"You  are  most  unselfish,  Don  Tomas,"  the  Dictator  said. 

"Not  a  bit,"  Parlett  laughed  nervously.  "I'm  only  a 
good  surgeon  and  a  better  doctor.  I  mean  to  make  a  suc 
cess  of  that  operation.  That's  pride  in  my  craft.  I  know 
how.  That's  more  than  most  men  can  truly  say." 


(5) 

On  the  morning  of  the  day  set  for  the  operation  petition 
ers  at  the  Government  House  found  Beltran  in  the  patio,  in 
charge.  Francia  had  early  gone  to  the  Velarde  mansion. 

There  the  street  was  gay  with  dragoons  and  hussars,  Cap 
tain  Garmendia  and  Lieutenant  Ortellado  in  command. 
Inside  the  patio  two  of  the  priors,  Padre  Santiago  and  Fray 


CATARACTS  475 

Ignacio,  were  praying  under  the  colonnade  on  the  sunny 
side.  Opposite  them  the  largest  and  most  ornate  armchair 
in  the  house  had  been  placed  for  the  Dictator.  He  sat  in 
it  bolt  upright,  watchful  and  mute.  Some  thirty  feet  from 
him  Parlett  bustled  about,  directing  the  servants  as  to  the 
location  of  the  broad,  low  stool,  on  which  Don  Toribio  was. 
to  be  seated,  and  the  small,  high  chair  for  himself.  He  had 
them  placed,  sat  in  the  chair,  eyed  the  edge  of  the  shadow 
on  the  pavement,  held  up  his  hand  and  regarded  his  finger 
tips,  conned  the  eaves  all  round  the  patio,  stood  up  and 
ordered  stool  and  chair  moved,  sat  down  over  again,  and 
surveyed  the  surroundings,  repeated  the  whole  series  of 
actions,  and  kept  it  up  until  he  was  completely  satisfied. 
Then  he  had  a  little  table,  the  legs  of  which  had  been  sawed 
off  to  make  it  just  the  proper  height,  placed  most  exactly 
in  the  handiest  position,  and  on  it  disposed  his  instruments. 
His  assistants,  chosen  from  among  the  Velarde  servants, 
were  stationed  where  they  could  respond  quickest  when 
called  on.  He  had  selected  them  as  intelligent  and  alert 
and  had  assigned  to  each  one  duty  only. 

After  everything  was  prepared,  Ventura  led  in  Don  Tori- 
bio,  wearing  only  his  low  shoes,  white  silk  stockings,  red 
satin  knee  breeches  and  beruffled  cambric  shirt.  "When  he 
was  comfortably  settled  on  the  stool,  Parlett  said  to  Ven 
tura: 

"You  are  to  be  my  chief  assistant.  You  are  cool  and 
collected,  have  more  sense  than  anybody  else  available,  and 
more  self-control.  You  are  not  the  kind  to  faint  or  scream 
or  get  nervous.  I  know  your  sort.  Stand  until  I  say  kneel, 
do  just  what  I  say,  and  nothing  else." 

Ventura  nodded. 

''Fetch  that  embroidery  hoop  and  chamois  skin,"  Parlett 
commanded. 

Taking  them  from  the  servant  who  held  them  and  speak 
ing  so  that  Don  Toribio  would  be  certain  to  hear,  he  said : 
.  "I  want  to  give  you  an  idea,  Senorita,  of  the  perfection 
of  my  instruments  and  of  how  trifling  will  be  the  pain  of 
this  brief  operation.  You  see  this  chamois  skin  is  thin, 
but  stout  and  strong.  I  have  it  stretched  tight  as  a  drum 
head  on  this  embroidery  hoop.  I  take  up  the  knife  with 
which  I  am  about  to  operate.  Now  observe  what  I  am  about 
to  do.  I  set  it  point  down  on  the  level  drum  of  chamois. 


476  EL   SUPREMO 

skin.  I  do  not  let  it  drop  on  the  drum,  not  even  the  smallest 
distance.  I  do  not  press  on  it,  not  the  weight  of  a  feather. 
Observe  that  of  its  own  weight  it  pierces  the  chamois  skin, 
passes  entirely  through  it  to  the  handle.  You  did  not  hear 
it ;  it  made  not  the  slightest  noise.  Look  at  the  slash.  It  is 
as  smooth  as  possible;  not  a  sign  of  ragged  edge.  Juat 
that  smooth  will  be  the  incision  in  the  eye ;  no  tearing,  no 
pain  whatever.  He  '11  hardly  feel  the  incision. ' ' 

"Senor  Don  Tomas,"  Don  Toribio  said,  "be  sure  I  shall 
not  flinch." 

"I  am  sure,"  said  Parlett. 

He  lifted  Don  Toribio 's  lids,  one  by  one. 

"Fine!"  he  exclaimed.  "The  pupils  are  completely 
dilated." 

He  bathed  each  eye  with  Guarani  eye-lotion,  bathed  his 
•hands,  dipped  each  instrument,  and  remarked: 

' '  Now  we  begin. ' ' 

He  seated  himself  on  the  chair  and  instructed  Ventura 
how  to  hold  her  father's  head  and  keep  the  upper  eyelid 
open. 

Don  Toribio  made  neither  sound  nor  movement  during 
his  brief  ordeal. 

Before  the  priors  realised  that  the  operation  was  begun, 
it  was  ended,  and  both  eyes  bandaged  over  pads  of  lint 
soaked  in  Guarani  eye-lotion. 

"This  day  a  week,"  Parlett  said,  "I'll  begin  to  remove 
those  bandages." 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 

EMPRESS  VENTURA 
(1) 

ON  the  momentous  occasion  of  the  final  unbandaging 
there  assembled  in  the  patio  of  the  Velarde  mansion, 
as  Parlett  had  ironically  suggested  for  the  operation,  all 
four  Priors,  the  Vicar-General,  and  the  Bishop. 

"At  Asuncion,"  said  Don  Fray  Evaristo  de  Panes,  "the 
grace  of  God  is  manifested  in  a  very  special  manner.  We 
have  seen  miracles  in  Asuncion  time  and  again.  We  may 
behold  another  to-day,  by  the  mercy  of  heaven. ' ' 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  477 

Francia  put  off  his  official  bearing,  as  before,  when  he 
crossed  the  threshold.  But  at  sight  of  the  group  of  eccle 
siastics,  he  partially  resumed  it,  glaring  at  them  in  his 
most  dictatorial  manner. 

When  Don  Toribio  had  been  led  forth  and  guided  to  his 
chair,  Parlett  turned  from  his  comfortably  seated  patient 
and  looked  for  Ventura. 

" Place  yourself  directly  in  front  of  him,"  he  com 
manded.  "You  should  be  the  first  object  his  eyes  behold." 

Ventura,  corseted  as  always,  and  clad  in  a  tupoi  of  corn- 
coloured  silk,  with  a  broad  girdle  of  patriot  's-blue  satin, 
knelt  before  her  father.  Parlett,  thereupon,  made  him  sit 
up  straighter.  His  chair  was  placed  on  the  shaded  side  of 
the  courtyard,  half  under  its  colonnade,  and  he  faced  away 
from  the  glare  of  the  patio,  towards  the  cool,  dusky  dimness 
of  the  shadowy  wall.  Ventura,  kneeling  before  him,  had 
the  reflected  light  from  the  sky  full  on  her  uplifted  face. 

When  Parlett  had  satisfied  himself  of  the  success  of  his 
operation  and  of  the  fitness  of  the  eyes  to  be  wholly  un 
covered,  he  completely  removed  the  bandages,  fitted  on  his 
patient  a  large  pair  of  horn-bowed  spectacles,  and  stepped 
aside. 

"Now,  open  your  eyes,  Don  Toribio,"  he  said. 

Ventura,  her  gaze  riveted  on  her  father's  face,  saw 
recognition  in  his  look. 

Don  Toribio  made  an  inarticulate  sound,  half  exclama 
tion,  half  sob,  and  then  spoke. 

' '  My  precious  girl ;  and  more  beautiful  after  nine  years ! ' ' 

Ventura  half  rose  and  they  folded  each  other  in  a  close 
embrace. 

Presently,  when  Ventura,  wiping  her  eyes,  stood  by  her 
father 's  arm,  Parlett  beckoned  the  clergymen,  who,  in  turn, 
came  round  under  the  colonnade  so  as  to  pass  in  front  of 
Don  Toribio.  He  recognised  each  joyfully  and  called  each 
by  name. 

' '  A  miracle  indeed ! ' '  said  the  Bishop.  ' '  By  the  inscruta 
ble  will  of  our  Heavenly  Father  we  behold  a  miracle 
wrought  by  the  hand  of  a  heretic.  Such  are  the  mysterious 
dispensations  of  Divine  Providence.  Did  I  not  say  that  at 
Asuncion  the  grace  of  God  is  manifested  in  a  very  special 
manner  ? ' ' 

Francia  declined  to  pass  in  front  of  the  patient. 


478  EL   SUPREMO 

"I  know  Toribio  of  old,"  he  said.  "No  man  is  more 
punctilious  or  is  dominated  by  more  exacting  instincts  in 
matters  of  courtesy.  In  loyalty  he  yields  to  no  Paraguayan. 
He  would  rise  at  the  sight  of  me.  Let  him  remain  seated ! ' ' 

He  was  about  to  depart  when  Ventura  spoke. 

' '  Excelentisirno  Senor,  may  I  have  a  few  words  with  you 
in  the  sola?" 

"Certainly,  Senorita,"  the  Dictator  agreed,  looking 
frankly  astonished. 

She  led  him  into  the  big,  dim  room,  and  to  an  armchair 
on  the  estrada,  seating  herself  in  another  by  it. 

Francia  sat  down  without  speaking. 

1 '  I  wish  to  beg  a  favour, ' '  Ventura  began. 

"My  impulse,"  Francia  said,  "is  to  reply  'granted'  be 
fore  uttered,  but  I  have  been  so  habituated  to  requests  for 
favours  involving  my  responsibilities  to  Paraguay,  that  I 
am  constrained  to  content  myself  with  asking  you  to  state 
it." 

"I  implore  you,"  Ventura  said,  "to  recall  from  banish 
ment  Don  Manuel  Bianquet,  and  his  innocent  wife  and  chil 
dren." 

Francia 's  countenance,  less  inscrutable  than  usually,  be 
trayed  much  feeling. 

"I  could  refuse  you  nothing,"  he  said,  "not  even  were 
you  to  insist  upon  a  flagrant  violation  of  my  duties  as 
Dictator. 

' '  I  beg  you  to  hear  me  out.  If,  after  I  have  said  my  say, 
you  repeat  your  request,  I  know  I  shall  be  weak  enough 
to  accede,  however  much  I  must  despise  myself  for  contra 
vening  the  behests  of  my  conscience. 

"The  circumstances  are  these.  Don  Manuel  is  a  charm 
ing  man.  But  he  is  a  dishonest  merchant.  I  heard  rumours 
of  his  unfair  dealing  and  warned  him  more  than  once.  The 
rumours  increased  in  frequency  and  in  definiteness.  Again 
I  warned  him.  Then  came  positive  evidence,  unimpeach 
able  evidence,  accumulated  evidence  of  many  chicaneries. 
So  nefarious,  so  infamous  were  his  frauds  that  no  punish 
ment  could  be  too  severe.  Bad  as  th£y  were,  had  his  victims 
been  other  merchants,  I  should  fcave  let  him  off  with  a 
reprimand.  Such  traders  as  Recalde  and  Jovellanos  may 
look  out  for  themselves  for  all  I  care,  and  should  be  able 
to  fend  for  themselves.  But  Don  Manuel  sold  all  sorts  of 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  479 

misrepresented  goods  direct  to  labourers,  peons,  and  their 
women.  You  know  how  tenderly  I  regard  my  Guaranies, 
you  know  how  easily  they  are  cheated,  how  heartless  must 
be  the  scoundrel  who  victimises  them.  There  could  be  no 
doubt  concerning  the  long  course  of  Don  Manuel's  rascali 
ties. 

' '  A  native  Paraguayan,  for  such  swindling,  I  should  have 
had  shot  without  mercy.  A  Montevideano  I  had  no  wish 
to  execute  nor  to  cast  into  a  dungeon.  To  put  him  in  the 
public  prison  would  merely  be  to  lead  up  to  his  release  on 
payment  of  a  fine,  for  which  he  would  recoup  himself  by 
redoubled  impositions. 

' '  The  natural  thing  to  do  was  to  banish  him  to  Corrientes 
and  be  rid  of  him.  But  in  the  course  of  his  trading  Don 
Manuel  had  become  acquainted  with  many  secrets  of  my 
administration.  It  would  have  been  folly  to  set  him  free  as 
an  adviser  to  Perrichon,  Artigas,  Candioti  and  Alvear. 

' 'I  bethought  myself  of  Curuguatay  as  a  place  from 
which  escape  is  practically  impossible,  and  as  in  real  need 
of  a  trader  to  supply  many  wants  of  its  inhabitants  and 
the  neighbouring  hacendados.  I  gave  Don  Manuel  notice 
of  his  banishment  to  Curuguatay.  His  wife  petitioned  to 
be  allowed  to  accompany  him  with  their  children.  That 
was  her  affair  and  his,  not  mine,  and  was  her  choice.  Was 
I  to  refuse  a  faithful  wife  willing  to  share  her  husband's 
exile  ? 

"Don  Manuel  is  thriving  in  a  small  way  upon  steady 
trade  at  Curuguatay.  And  he  is  dealing  honestly.  So  I 
am  informed  by  both  Comandante  Kobles  and  Father  Ye- 
guaca." 

Francia  paused. 

Ventura  stood  up. 

"I  have  nothing  further  to  say/'  she  breathed. 


(2) 

"Old  Sour-Face,"  said  Parlett  to  the  assemblage,  "is  not 
such  a  bad  sort  when  he  is  in  a  good  humour. ' ' 

Dr.  Bargas  agreed  and  so  did  Yegros  and  Bogarin. 

"He  sent  for  me,"  Parlett  continued,  "the  very  day  after 
I  took  tlie  bandages  from  Don  Toribio  s  eyes. 


480  EL   SUPREMO 

"  'How  much,'  says  he,  'do  you  mean  to  ask  Don  Toribio 
for  curing  his  blindness  ?  What  fee  do  you  expect  for  hav 
ing  restored  his  eyesight  ?  ' 

"I  hesitated. 

"  'You  want  the  very  largest  fee  you  can  extract ?'  he 
queried. 

'  'Naturally, 'said  I. 

"  "Then  take  my  advice,'  said  he,  'and  you'll  never  be 
sorry  as  long  as  you  live.  Go  daily  to  his  house  to  enquire 
for  his  health.  Tell  the  servant  to  convey  to  him  your 
compliments,  but  refuse  to  enter  the  house.  When  he  sends 
for  you  to  your  own  house,  go  at  once  to  see  him.  When 
he  asks  you  how  much  your  fee  amounts  to,  reply  that  you 
could  not  think  of  accepting  payment  from  him,  that  it  was 
a  pleasure  to  serve  him.  The  result  will  be  more  profitable 
to  you  than  any  cash  fee  you  would  venture  to  name.' 

"I  took  Old  Sour-Face's  advice.  When  I  made  that 
answer  Don  Toribio  thanked  me,  looked  pleased,  offered  me 
snuff,  and  then  said : 

"  '  If  you  will  not  accept  a  payment  for  your  skill,  Sefior 
Don  Tomas,  at  least  let  me  express  my  gratitude  by  offering 
you  a  small  gift.' 

"I  bowed. 

"He  pulled  out  a  drawer  of  his  bufete,  scooped  up  a 
double  handful  of  doubloons  and  forced  them  on  me,  then 
another  double  handful  of  the  same  great  gold  pieces. 

"Then  more  handfuls. 

"I  could  hardly  carry  the  stuff.  I  felt  the  weight  of  it 
weigh  down  my  pockets. 

"When  I  got  home  I  counted  two  hundred  and  two 
doubloons.  That's  thirty-four  hundred  and  thirty-five 
piastres,  pesos,  dollars,  whatever  you  call  'em.  It  comes 
to  at  least  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  pounds,  ten  shillings, 
at  the  worst  exchange  bad  luck  ever  could  bring  me.  And 
if  I  have  good  luck  I'll  cash  in  seven  hundred  and  seven 
good  golden  guineas. 

' '  Old  Sour-Face  certainly  gave  me  good  advice. ' ' 

"The  Marquess  de  Torretagle  de  Lima,"  spoke  Dr.  Bar- 
gas,  "could  not  have  advised  you  better." 

"And  the  cash,"  said  Parlett,  "is  not  all,  by  a  great 
deal.  Every  day  the  Velarde  butler  brings  me  the  choicest 
delicacies  from  the  market — game,  fish  and  fruit.  Almost 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  481 

every  day  some  servant  brings  me  some  present.  I've  a 
magnificent  saddle  and  bridle,  a  Peruvian  vicuna  poncho, 
a  silver-mounted  fowling-piece,  a  sumptuous  hammock,  a 
silver  service  for  six  covers,  a  new  water- jar,  and  a  hun 
dred  others  I  forget.  And  Isasi  tells  me  Don  Toribio  has 
commissioned  both  him  and  Zelaya  to  give  orders  to  all 
their  captains  to  ransack  Montevideo  and  Buenos  Aires  for 
surgical  instruments,  especially  French  makes,  and  buy  all 
they  find  for  him  to  give  me." 


(3) 

For  a  week  or  more  afterwards  Francia  was  in  a  high 
good  humour,  approachable  and  gracious ;  constantly  taking 
huge  pinches  of  snuff.  Then,  as  the  south-west  wind  slack 
ened,  blew  fitfully  and  variably,  and  finally  died  away,  he 
became  less  affable,  more  haughty,  and  later  stern  and  cold. 
As  the  wind  veered  to  the  north-east  he  waxed  fidgety, 
fretful  and  irritable.  From  day  to  day  he  accorded  inter 
views  to  fewer  and  fewer  applicants;  and  they  found  him 
curt  and  savage. 

Instead  of  watching  the  reviews  with  a  smile  and  riding 
off  after  a  word  of  warm  approbation  to  Beltran,  he  began 
to  interfere  and  break  in  with  comments.  After  the  change 
of  wind  made  itself  positively  noticeable  he  found  fault 
more  and  more  from  day  to  day.  One  afternoon  he  ex 
ploded  into  voluble  wrath,  rated  the  soldiers  roundly,  and 
ordered  Beltran  to  subject  the  entire  corps  to  an  early  drill 
the  next  day,  keeping  them  hard  at  it  till  well  on  towards 
noon. 

That  morning  he  sat  in  his  curule  chair,  busy  with  the 
papers  on  the  small  table  under  the  colonnade  of  the  empty 
outer  patio  in  the  Government  House.  Scarcely  a  peti 
tioner  had  ventured  to  disturb  him  the  day  before ;  to-day 
he  had  told  the  guards  to  turn  away  all  comers. 

His  face  puckered  over  a  great  sheet  of  invoices,  he  was 
totally  absorbed  in  his  task,  wholly  oblivious  to  all  else. 
Into  his  preoccupation  a  sound  intruded :  he  seemed  to  hear 
a  faint,  a  very  faint,  suggestion  of  approaching  footsteps. 
Very  faint  indeed ;  not  even  Bopi  's  bare  feet  trod  so  noise 
lessly  upon  the  worn  bricks.  As  he  became  aware  of  the 


482  EL   SUPREMO 

sounds,  before  they  distracted  him  from  his  employment, 
his  unconscious  reflections  noted  that  the  treads  were  not 
stealthy,  but  firm,  yet  each  light  as  the  fall  of  a  petal  from 
a  flower. 

Suddenly  his  intelligent  consciousness  became  aware  of 
what  he  was  hearing.  He  looked  up. 

He  stood  up,  startled,  very  erect,  yet  as  if  in  the  act  of 
bowing. 

Ventura  was  approaching  him,  already  half  way  across 
the  courtyard. 

Also  he  noticed  Fruela,  her  hands  folded,  standing 
meekly  under  the  far  colonnade  near  the  entrance. 

Ventura  advanced  unconcernedly,  in  the  most  matter-of- 
fact  way,  as  if  she  had  been  calling  on  one  of  her  aunts. 
She  was  corseted,  wore  a  tupoi  of  a  delicate  pink  dye  with 
a  belt  of  a  very  dark  blue  and  had  some  pink  flowers  in 
her  hair. 

Gazing  at  her,  Francia  made  a  deep  obeisance,  greeted 
her  ceremoniously,  and  bowed  her  to  her  chair. 

Seating  himself,  he  said: 

"You  should  not  have  come  here." 

* '  Should  not ! ' '  Ventura  exclaimed.  ' '  I  brought  Fruela 
with  me ;  it  is  broad  morning  daylight !  I  am  a  free  Para 
guayan,  and  all  citizens  of  the  republic  have  the  right  of 
access  to  its  executive  chief!" 

He  was  plainly  staggered,  and  asked: 

"How  did  you  get  in?" 

"The  sentry,"  replied  Ventura,  "passed  me  in  without 
.hesitation. ' ' 

Francia  made  an  inarticulate  exclamation  of  astonish 
ment. 

"You  are  obtuse,"  Ventura  calmly  told  him. 

* '  Any  of  your  sentries  would  pass  me ;  any  one  of  them 
would  have  done  so  at  any  time,  since  the  third  mass  the 
.Sunday  after  I  came  up  the  river.  Your  stolidest  Guarani 
has  wit  enough  for  that  kind  of  inference." 

"You  embarrass  me!"  the  Dictator  exclaimed. 

"It  is  I,"  said  Ventura,  "who  should  be  embarrassed/7 

"And  you  are  not?"  Francia  cried. 

"Not  a  particle,"  she  said.  "I  have  passed  through  all 
stages  of  conflict  with  myself  and  am  imperturbably  at 
peace  with  all  the  world." 


EMPRESS  VENTURA  483 

"Why  did  you  come?"  lie  queried. 

"You  did  not  come  to  me/'  she  said;  "I  waited.  You 
did  not  come.  So  I  came  to  you. ' ' 

"But  why?"  Francia  exclaimed. 

Ventura  flushed  crimson. 

"My  father  is  all  bustling  enjoyment  of  life.  He  is  like 
a  lad.  He  has  guests  to  dinners  and  tertulias;  he  rides 
horseback  daily.  He  is  completely  restored  to  sight  and 
activity. ' ' 

Francia  stared  at  her  without  a  word,  petrified. 

She  went  dead  pale  under  his  gaze,  her  eyes  full  on 
his. 

Then,  as  the  silence  lengthened,  she  blushed  from  the 
glossy  black  hair  above  her  high  forehead  to  the  gold-thread 
fringe  at  the  low  neck  of  her  tupoi. 

"I  said  there  would  be  no  limits  to  my  gratitude,"  she 
uttered  huskily.  "There  are  none." 

Francia 's  face  turned  a  dull  red-brown  and  then  paled 
again. 

He  stood  up,  bowed,  reseated  himself  and,  leaning  for 
ward,  spoke  hoarsely: 

"Senorita,  will  you  be  my  wife?" 

"Yes,"  Ventura  enunciated. 

Francia  sat  back  in  his  chair,  limp  from  his  carefully 
powdered  hair  to  the  square  toes  of  his  gold-buckled  low 
shoes.  Inside  his  blue,  gold-laced  general's  coat,  buff-corded 
breeches  and  white  silk  stockings,  he  suddenly  seemed 
flaccid  and  boneless. 

"I  am  astonished!"  he  half  whispered.  "I  am  bewil 
dered!" 

"Both  conditions,"  said  Ventura,  almost  smiling, 
'  *  equally  misbecome  a  prospective  bridegroom  or  the  abso 
lute  ruler  of  a  nation." 

Francia  sat  bolt  upright,  entirely  himself.  He  cackled 
a  nervous  laugh. 

"Neither  a  lover  nor  a  Dictator,"  he  said,  'is  proof 
against  lightning,  and  both  alike  may  be  thunderstruck. 
I  am  astounded.  I  cannot  credit  my  senses!  This  is  too 
good  to  be  true." 

He  looked  all  about  the  courtyard.  Save  for  Fruela, 
ignorant  of  any  tongue  except  Guarani,  and  totally  out  of 
ear-shot  where  she  squatted  patiently  under  the  far  colon- 


484  EL   SUPREMO 

nade,  the  patio  was  wholly  deserted;  they  were  entirely 
isolated. 

His  eyes  came  back  to  her  face  and  fixed  upon  it. 

1 '  You  love  me  ? "  he  asked. 

"Love,"  said  Ventura  evenly,  "is  too  much  to  expect. 
I  mean  to  marry  you;  be  content  with  that." 

Francia 's  habitually  pale  countenance  whitened  to  a 
chalky  lead-grey. 

'  *  You  do  not  love  me ! "  he  cried.  l '  I  decline  to  hear  any 
further  talk  of  marriage  between  us.  I  refuse  any  such 
sacrifice  on  your  part." 

Ventura  gazed  at  him,  wide-eyed  and  unwinking. 

"It  does  not  at  all  become  any  man  who  has  proposed 
marriage  to  a  woman  and  been  rejected,"  she  said,  "to 
spurn  the  same  woman,  offering  herself  to  him.  voluntarily 
within  the  same  month." 

"Offering  herself!"  Francia  echoed.  "You  shock  me, 
Senorita.  You  and  I  are  unconventional,  un-Paraguayan, 
un-Spanish.  But  this  goes  beyond  all  bounds  of  custom, 
even  of  the  customs  of  England  or  America. ' ' 

"Converts,"  Ventura  calmly  argued,  "whether  of  reli 
gion  or  manners  commonly  outdo  their  models.  I  am  no 
exception." 

"I  refuse  to  accept  any  such  sacrifice  of  yourself,"  he 
asseverated. 

"Sacrifice!"  Ventura  repeated  after  him.  "I  should 
not  call  it  a  sacrifice.  I  am  not  sacrificing  myself.  I  do 
not  love  any  other  man.  That  I  do  not  love  you  will  not 
make  marrying  you  a  sacrifice  of  myself.  I  have  heard 
of  many  happy  marriages  in  England  and  America,  mar 
riages  entirely  voluntary  on  the  part  of  the  wife,  where  a 
woman  wedded  a  man  for  whom  she  felt  no  love  whatever, 
but  whom  she  respected,  esteemed,  appreciated,  and  ad 
mired.  I  have  heard  of  not  a  few  such  marriages  in  which 
the  wife  came  to  love  her  husband  genuinely  and  fer 
vently.  If  a  woman  must  daily  and  hourly,  even  in  spite 
of  herself,  approve  her  husband's  acts,  commend  his  dis 
cernment,  acclaim  his  wisdom,  and  reverence  his  character, 
she  inevitably,  however  gradually  and  imperceptibly,  comes 
to  idolise  the  man  himself." 

"And  when  a  man,"  said  Francia,  "is  utterly  in  love 
with  a  woman  and  must  also  extol  her  intellect  and  eulogise 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  485 

her  eloquence,  he  covets  her  all  the  more.  You  are  a  per 
suasive  speaker,  a  convincing  pleader.  I  cannot  but  yield ; 
I  am  not  strong  enough  to  resist.  Yet  I  seem  to  recall  an 
aphorism  of  an  English  Countess,  about  loveless  marriages. 
Did  you  not  quote  to  me  such  an  apothegm?" 

"I  did,"  Ventura  admitted.  "It  was  Lady  Baxendale's. 
When  one  of  her  daughters,  asked  in  marriage  by  the  son 
of  a  Marquess,  declared  that  she  considered  friendly  respect 
quite  sufficient  as  a  basis  for  married  happiness,  that  she 
saw  no  impediment  to  happiness  on  that  basis,  her  mother 
said: 

[  l  '  Ah,  my  dear,  there  is  always  the  other  man. ' 

"Now  that  is  just  the  point  in  our  case.  There  is  no 
other  man.  And  I  may  say  there  never  has  been.  Of 
course,  I  thought  I  was  in  love  with  Vicente  Lopez ;  every 
girl  that  ever  saw  him  adored  him  at  first  sight.  But  that 
was  a  mere  girlish  infatuation,  and  Vicente,  rest  his  soul, 
has  been  dead  seven  years.  And  there  is  one  more  point: 
My  feeling  for  you  is  much  warmer  than  friendly  respect." 

"And  I,"  Francia  quoted,  "oppress  Paraguay,  have 
stained  my  hands  with  innocent  blood,  have  been  a  traitor 
to  my  kind,  have  denied  my  God." 

1 '  Oh, ' '  Ventura  cried.  ' '  You  ignoramus  philosopher,  you 
erudite  blockhead,  you  unconscionable  dunce!  You  may 
know  more  than  any  man  alive  about  eclipses  and  finances, 
Latin  and  Greek,  law  and  policy.  But  of  women  you 
know  nothing!  About  women  you  are  a  dolt!  Venancio 
Lopez  could  school  you.  Can't  you  comprehend  what  you 
ought  to  have  known  from  boyhood,  that  when  a  woman, 
is  angry  she  utters  the  most  cutting  taunt  that  comes  into 
her  head,  regardless  of  whether  it  is  true  or  not  ? ' ' 

' '  Then  you  did  not  mean  all  that  and  the  rest  ? ' '  Francia 
queried. 

1  *  You  clod ! ' '  Ventura  exclaimed,  ' '  of  course  I  meant  it. 
A  woman  means  anything  she  says  when  she  is  angry.  I 
meant  it  with  every  tingling  shred  of  me.  But  when  I  had 
thought  it  over,  since  I  have  thought  it  over,  after  my 
father 's  restoration,  I  found  that  I  did  not  really  feel  what 
I  had  hurled  at  you.  I  do  not  feel  it." 

"Thank  you  for  the  assurance,"  Francia  said,  bowing. 

There  was  a  momentary  silence. 

Slowly  the  Dictator  smiled. 


486  EL   SUPREMO 

"I  have  always  deferred,"  he  said,  "to  adepts  in  depart 
ments  of  knowledge  by  me  unexplored,  I  have  always  en 
deavoured  to  learn  from  them  what  I  could.  But  I  have 
not  found  masculine  experts  so  contemptuous  of  unschooled 
neophytes.  I  hope  to  find  you  less  intolerant  of  my  igno 
rance  in  countless  matters  relating  to  women. " 

Ventura  smiled. 

"In  most/'  she  said,  "I  imagine  you  shall." 

There  was  another  silence. 

Francia  spoke  first. 

"I  fancy,"  he  said,  "that  the  best  method  of  procedure 
will  be  for  me  to  ask  you  of  your  father  with  all  the  cus 
tomary  traditional  formalities  without  any  reference  to  my 
official  position,  as  if  I  were,  say,  one  of  the  Casals." 

Ventura  nodded. 

"And  now,"  said  the  Dictator,  "I  beg  you,  Seiiorita,  to 
make  me  a  promise." 

"What  is  it?"  Ventura  queried  tonelessly. 

* '  I  ask  you, ' '  Francia  said,  '  *  not  to  visit  me  here  again. ' ' 

Ventura  reflected. 

"I  am  not  willing,"  she  said,  "to  pledge  myself  to  that 
without  qualification.  But  I  promise  not  to  come  here 
except  under  circumstances  which  would  bring  any  Para 
guayan  here  as  a  petitioner." 

Francia  bowed. 

(4) 

Don  Toribio  displayed  an  independence  wholly  unlocked 
for.  He  received  Francia 's  overtures  precisely  as  they 
were  made,  just  as  if  he  had  been  any  wealthy  or  well-to-do 
gentleman. 

"I  shall  need  time  for  consideration,  Sefior  Don  Gaspar," 
he  said.  "If  you  will  return  to-morrow  or  any  later  day 
at  this  hour  I  shall  be  able  to  be  more  definite. ' ' 

Again  accompanied  by  Beltran,  Francia  returned  the 
next  day  as  unaffectedly  as  if  he  had  been  a  simple  advo 
cate.  It  was  Don  Toribio  who  brought  up  the  question  of 
his  official  position,  and  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  inter 
view,  as  soon  as  the  greetings  and  compliments  were 
over. 

"I  have  considered  the  matter  as  thoroughly  in  a  day," 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  487 

he  said,  "as  I  should  be  likely  to  do  in  a  year.  I  have  also 
consulted  Ventura.  A  being  who  has  travelled  as  she  has 
is  not  to  be  disposed  of  like  any  ordinary  girl  with  no 
mind  of  her  own.  She  tells  me  she  is  entirely  willing  to 
marry  you.  I  also  am  entirely  willing  for  her  to  marry 
you."  " 

Francia  bowed. 

"It  only  remains  then,"  he  said,  "to  settle  the  date  of 
the  wedding." 

"That,"  Don  Toribio  said,  "is  a  point  that  will  require 
much  cautious  discussion." 

"Why  so?"  queried  Francia,  astonished. 

"Bear  with  me,  Senor  Don  Gaspar,"  said  the  former 
blind  man,  his  eyes  on  the  Dictator's.  "I  must  choose  my 
words  carefully,  I  must  approach  the  point  gradually. 
Do  not  be  impatient,  I  beg,  nor  incensed." 

Francia  bowed. 

"The  matter  presents  itself  to  me  thus,"  Don  Toribio 
continued.  "I  desire  to  see  my  daughter  happy  and  per 
manently  happy,  in  so  far  as  there  can  be  any  permanency 
in  human  affairs.  We  cannot  control  the  uncertainties  of 
life  j  many  of  them  we  cannot  foresee.  But  some  of  them 
we  can  foresee  and  avoid.  And  to  some  extent  we  can 
judge  the  future  by  the  past. 

"You  recall,  as  I  do,  many  marriages  in  Espinosa's  time 
where  the  bride  mated  with  every  prospect  of  a  long  life  of 
affluence  and  conjugal  felicity  and,  within  a  year,  saw  her 
self  an  exile  to  some  half-savage  hamlet,  her  husband  a 
pauper,  stripped  of  his  entire  patrimony.  Many  others 
were  as  undeservedly  widowed  and  left  entirely  wretched. 
Such  were  the  uncertainties  of  life  for  the  wealthy  and 
noble  under  Don  Lazaro's  tyranny.  No  man  could  predict 
what  his  caprice  would  lead  to.  A  man  secure  of  life  and 
property  one  day  might  be  the  next  a  beggar,  his  estates 
confiscated,  and,  before  night,  a  corpse. 

"Now,  bear  with  me,  Senor  Don  Gaspar,  and  be  not  in 
censed. 

"No  man  can  predict  what  a  convention  of  representa 
tives  of  all  Paraguay  will  vote,  nor  its  caprices.  You  are 
to-day  more  absolute  in  this  republic  than  any  ruler  in 
any  other  country.  Your  power  and  popularity  seem  se 
cure.  There  is  every  probability  that  next  May  you  will 


488  EL   SUPREMO 

be  unanimously  proclaimed  Supreme  and  Perpetual  Dic 
tator,  absolute  for  life. 

' '  But  there  is  just  a  bare  possibility  that  events  may  take 
some  wholly  unexpected  turn,  that  the  convention  may  not 
act  as  we  forecast,  that  its  vote  may  relegate  you  to  private 
life.  Bear  with  me,  Senor  Don  Gaspar.  You  have  ap 
proached  me  in  this  matter  not  as  an  autocrat  of  Paraguay, 
but  as  any  man  asking  any  man 's  daughter.  I  reply  in  the 
like  spirit.  We  Velardes  are  the  wealthiest  and  noblest 
Paraguayans.  A  Velarde 's  daughter  should  mate  fittingly. 
As  Dictator  of  Paraguay  you  are  the  best  match  in  the 
republic. 

"But  suppose  Ventura  finds  herself  within  a  year  wife 
of  a  mere  ex-Dictator,  of  a  simple  advocate.  Her  share  o£ 
the  Velarde  wealth  would  indeed  enable  you  two  to  live  in 
affluence.  You  would  suffer  no  miseries  like  the  impover 
ished  victims  of  Espinosa's  confiscations.  But  as  ex-Dicta 
tor  you  would  be  the  target  of  all  the  pent-up  hatred,  spite 
and  venom  accumulated  against  you  among  those  envious  of 
your  exaltation  or  thwarted  by  your  integrity.  You  could 
hardly  escape  exile,  assassination  or  execution.  Am  I 
to  see  my  daughter  a  widow  before  she  is  twice  a 
mother  ? 

"Weigh  all  these  considerations,  Senor  Dan  Gaspar.  I 
observe,  with  pleasure,  that  you  pay  me  the  deference  to 
'listen  in  silence  to  all  these  unpalatable  utterances.  Am  I 
laying  too  heavy  a  load  on  your  patience  when  I  ask  you 
to  postpone  the  fixing  of  the  date  for  the  wedding  until 
after  the  dispersal  of  the  impending  convention?" 


(5) 

No  one  had  overheard  Ventura's  talk  with  Prancia  at 
the  Palacio,  nor  had  any  eavesdropper  caught  any  word  of 
the  two  interviews  between  Toribio  and  the  Dictator.  Yet 
the  gossip  of  the  city  made  a  fairly  accurate  conjecture  of 
the  facts.  It  was  the  general  rumour  that  Francia  and 
Ventura  were  to  be  married  after  the  convention  if 
the  Dictator's  authority  was  confirmed  and  made  perma 
nent. 

Ventura  immediately  eclipsed  Beltran  as  Beltran  had 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  489 

eclipsed  Hawthorne,  and  became  the  focus  of  all  the  in 
trigues,  adulation  and  sycophancy  of  the  capital,  and  also 
the  target  of  its  insinuations,  innuendoes,  defamation  and 
scurrility. 

Every  toady  in  the  city  hastened  to  curry  favour  with 
Don  Toribio;  every  woman  fawned  upon  Ventura.  Dori1 
Toribio  enjoyed  his  position,  accepted  ironically  the  gifts 
thrust  upon  him,  and  revelled  in  the  play  of  wit  with 
which  he  veiled  his  contempt  under  thanks  flawlessly 
worded.  Ventura  was  frankly  disgusted  and  surfeited  with 
adulation  and  cajoleries  and  found  a  sort  of  relief  in  Dona 
Pancha's  cutting  sarcasms  and  in  Dona  Juana's  blunt 
directness. 

^  Throughout  Asuncion  she  was  the  staple  topic  of  discus 
sion  with  all  classes.  She  was  credited  with  unlimited 
influence  with  Francia.  It  was  not  so  much  that  he  was 
to  marry  that  impressed  the  imagination  of  the  people  of 
Asuncion,  though  that  mere  fact  was  inexpressibly  startling 
to  all  ;^ what  struck  everybody  with  amazement  was  that  he 
was  willing  to  wait  until  after  the  convention.  That  con- 
vinced^high  and  lowly  alike  of  her  incredible  ascendancy 
over  him.  The  aristocracy  nicknamed  her  ' '  Empress  Ven 
tura,"  the  rabble,  ''the  almignc>  i-apoi."  If  any  one  had 
any  doubt  of  her  domination  it  was  obliterated  by  two 
spectacular  occurrences  not  long  after  Francia 's  acquies 
cence  in  Don  Toribio 's  views. 

One  afternoon  the  Dictator  was  riding  back  to  the  Pa- 
lacio  from  the  daily  review  at  the  suburban  barracks. 
His  horse  proceeded  at  a  slow  walk,  his  rider's  head  bent 
over  his  left  shoulder  against  the  strong  north-west  wind. 
As  usual  Francia  rode  in  a  circuit  predictable  by  no  man. 
It  led  him  past  the  house  of  Don  Pascual  Echagiie.  A  white 
spot  on  the  house  wall,  near  the  far  corner,  beyond  the  last 
window,  caught  the  Dictator's  eye.  He  swerved  to  that  side 
of  the  roadway,  saw  a  sheet  of  paper,  as  it  were  a  hand-bill, 
affixed  to  the  wall,  and  manoeuvred  his  horse  close  up  to 
it,  until  he  could  read  it. 

What  he  read  was : 

"Our  snarling  jaguar,  by  caprice  of  fate, 
Senile  and  mangy,  yet  has  found  a  mate 
To  humor  him  whom  all  good  women  hate. 


490  EL   SUPREMO 

"We  thought  that  she,  though  jeered  by  gods  and  men, 
Already  would  be  sharing  his  foul  den, 
We  see  a  marvel  much  beyond  my  pen. 

"He  waits,  whereas  we  trowed  this  law-dragoon 
Would  marry  quickly,  have  his  wedding  soon, 
Promptly  as  once  he  ordered  mass  at  noon. 

"His  blood  with  youthful  ardour  in  a  blaze, 
He  whom  all  opposition  used  to  craze 
Submits  to  long  indefinite  delays. 

"What  sorcery  has  brought  to  pass  this  freak? 
What  magic  made  him  patient,  mild  and  meek? 
The  answer  is  not  very  far  to  seek. 

"You  ask  what  makes  him  tardy  to  enact 
The  ceremony?     That  is  easy  tracked. 
He  waits  but  in  appearance,  not  in  fact." 


His  lancers,  in  talking  the  incident  over  later  among 
themselves,  unanimously  agreed  that  they  had  thought  they 
had  known  El  Supremo  angry  and  wrathful,  had  even  seen 
him  rabid ;  but  that  they  realised  they  had  never  seen  him 
more  than  mildly  irritated,  comparing  all  his  past  outbursts 
of  rage  with  the  fury  he  exhibited  after  reading  that 
placard.  The  sight  of  his  face  when  he  looked  back  at  them 
turned  them  numb. 

He  barked  an  order. 

Six  leapt  from  their  horses  and  burst  into  the  house. 
Almost  at  once  they  returned,  haling  among  them  Don 
Pascual  Eehagiie.  Up  to  the  poster  they  dragged  him.  To 
it  Francia  pointed. 

"Senor  Don  Pascual,"  he  queried,  now  cold  as  ice,  "how 
came  this  lampoon  on  your  house-wall  ? ' ' 

'  *  I  do  not  know, ' '  stammered  the  fainting  don. 

"A  lie!"  snapped  the  Dictator.  "Off  with  him  to  the 
cuartel." 

Very  early  in  the  morning  two  days  later  Bopi  announced 
to  Francia  a  lady  halted  by  the  sentry  at  the  gate  of  the 
Palacio. 

1 '  Admit  her, '  '  growled  the  Dictator. 

There  approached  him  a  personable  matron  whom  he 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  4911 

knew  he  should  recognise,  but  whom  he  could  not,  for  the 
life  of  him,  identify. 

He  stood  up  ceremoniously  and  greeted  her  graciously: 

"Be  seated,  Senora." 

After  he  had  also  sat  down  he  asked : 

"What,  Sefiora,  is  your  desire?" 

At  that  the  lady  burst  into  tears,  and,  with  clasped  hands, 
knelt  before  him,  dragging  herself  towards  him  as  she 
sobbed,  exclaiming: 

* '  Mercy,  Excellency,  mercy ! ' ' 

"Mercy  for  whom?"  Francia  queried,  irritated  and  em 
barrassed,  for  he  abominated  such  intercessions. 

The  poor  lady  could  only  sob. 

' '  My  husband !    My  husband ! ' ' 

"What  ails  your  husband?"  Francia  enquired  testily. 

"He  is  in  the  public  prison,"  she  managed  to  utter,  be 
tween  sobs.  "  He  is  fettered  with  a  barra  de  grilles.  He  is 
ill.  He  will  die." 

"That  is  the  fault  of  those  fools  Narvaez  and  Sa- 
bola,"  Francia  replied.  "I'll  send  Dr.  Parlett  and 
have  him  looked  after  properly.  Who  is  your  hus 
band?" 

"Don  Pascual  Echagiie,"  she  answered,  more  distinctly. 

"Don  Pascual  Echagiie!"  the  Dictator  thundered. 
"Were  you  Melchora  Jovellanos?" 

"I  was,"  Dona  Melchora  replied. 

"Zorilla!"  Francia  called,  in  his  fiercest  voice. 

Zorilla  came  instanter. 

"Go  to  the  cuartel,"  the  Dictator  commanded,  "and  rivet 
a  second  barra  de  grillos  on  that  scoundrel  Echagiie." 

Dona  Melchora  burst  anew  into  sobs,  wailings  and  be- 
seechings. 

'  *  Seize  that  crazy  woman ! '  '  came  the  second  order. 

Zorilla  summoned  two  soldiers,  who  clutched  her,  one  by 
each  arm. 

"Hearken!"  spoke  Francia  sternly.  "Each  time  you 
dare  to  intrude  yourself  upon  me  an  additional  barra  de 
grillos  shall  be  riveted  upon  your  husband. 

' '  Take  her  away !    Put  her  out ! " 

Dona  Melchora  never  knew  how  she  reached  her  home. 
Eeach  home  she  did,  more  dead  than  alive.  There  she  found 
iier  sister-in-law,  Dofia  Pancha  Jovellanos,  who  at  sight  of 


492  EL   SUPREMO 

her  put  off  her  habitual  acerbity  and  became  tender  and 
helpful.  When  she  had  elicited  her  story  she  said: 

"The  first  thing  for  you  must  be  mate,  food  and  rest. 
In  this  condition  you  can  do  nothing.  Then  we  must  go 
see  Ventura,  which  is  what  you  should  have  done  yester 
day.'7 

Consequently,  shortly  before  his  dinner  hour,  Francia 
fteheld  Ventura  enter  the  courtyard. 

He  greeted  her  with  ceremony  and,  she  noted,  with  agita 
tion  which  he  endeavoured  to  hide  beneath  an  attempt  at 
jocularity,  asking  when  both  were  seated: 

"And  are  you  here,  Seiiorita,  as  a  free  citizen  of  a  free 
republic  ? ' ' 

"I  am  here,"  she  spoke  resonantly,  "as  your  possible 
future  wife." 

Francia  rose,  bowed  profoundly,  reseated  himself,  and 
asked,  in  a  most  serious  tone : 

"And  on  what  errand?" 

"My  errand,"  she  said,  "might  indeed  be  that  of  any 
citizen  of  a  free  republic.  I  come  to  demand  mere  justice 
for  an  innocent  man  imprisoned." 

"And  who  is  this  guiltless  victim?"  the  Dictator  queried, 
a  hint  of  his  evil  snarl  in  his  tone.  * '  And  what  is  the  mere 
justice  you  demand  for  him?" 

' '  Gaspar, ' '  said  Ventura,  and  saw  him  thrill  at  the  form 
of  address,  "unless  you  deal  with  me  fairly,  without  sar 
casm  or  covert  sneer,  I  leave  you  at  once  and  you  shall  never 
see  my  face  again,  alive  or  dead. ' ' 

Francia  sprang  up,  chalky  pale,  and  sat  down  again  as 
hastily. 

' '  Senorita, ' '  he  said  solemnly,  ' '  whoever  else  may  or  may 
not  be  such,  I  certainly  am  now  an  innocent  victim.  I  am 
guiltless  of  sneer  or  sarcasm  towards  you." 

"You  are  so  habituated,"  Ventura  told  him,  "to  servility 
and  cringing,  that  the  first  hint  of  opposition  brings  into 
your  voice  and  the  wording  of  your  utterances  a  malignant 
jeer  which  is  all  the  worse  if  wholly  unconscious." 

"I  shall  not  offend  again,"  he  assured  her;  "at  least, 
not  against  you.  What  prisoner  do  you  wish  released  ? ' ' 

"Don  Pascual  Echagiie,"  Ventura  stated. 

Francia  did  not  spring  up,  but  his  demeanour  expressed 
amazement  more  vividly  than  would  have  any  movement. 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  493 

"This,"  he  exclaimed,  "is  the  forbearance,  the  mildness, 
the  magnanimity  of  the  saints,  of  the  angels.  You  inter 
cede  for  your  detractor !  As  a  lover,  as  a  man,  I  applaud ; 
but  as  a  ruler,  I  must  beg  of  you  not  to  press  your  request, 
but  to  withdraw  it  as  you  did  with  that  for  the  Bianquets. 
It  is  not  public  policy  that  so  vile  a  slanderer,  so  detest 
able  a  libeller,  so  hideous  a  calumniator  should  not  suffer 
the  severest  just  penalty  of  his  misdeeds.  I  was  tempted  to 
have  him  shot,  to  cast  him  into  a  dungeon.  I  reflected 
that  imprisonment  in  fetters  would  be  punishment  severe 
enough ' ' 

"Hardly  severe  enough,"  Ventura  interrupted,  "had  he 
been  guilty.  But  I  intercede  for  him  not  as  a  meek  saint 
for  a  forgiven  enemy,  but  as  a  clear-headed,  practical 
woman  for  a  manifestly  innocent  man;  and  I  press  my 
suit  and  shall  press  it." 

* '  What  ? ' '  Francia  cried.  ' '  You  call  him  innocent  ?  This 
abominable  defamer  of  so  noble  a  woman  as  yourself,  this 
publisher  of  lampoons  ?  You  call  him  innocent,  you  plead 
for  him?" 

"Innocent  he  indubitably  is,"  Ventura  maintained,  "and 
I  plead  not  less  for  you  than  for  him.  When  you  are  calm 
you  are  the  justest  man  alive ;  when  you  are  angry  you  are 
as  irrational  as  a  cross  baby.  You  have  not  an  atom  of 
proof  of  Don  Pascual  's  guilt,  and  much  of  his  innocence. 

"What  composer  of  a  pasquinade  so  envenomed  against 
you  and  so  dangerous  to  its  author  would  affix  it  to  the 
wall  of  his  own  dwelling?  What  countless  chances  any 
one  from  Venancio  Lopez  to  El  Zapo  would  have  for  post 
ing  a  paper  on  anybody 's  wall !  What  watch  does  any  one 
in  lazy  Asuncion  keep  over  his  street- wall  during  the  siesta 
hour?  When  did  plump  old  Pascual,  in  all  his  life  since 
childhood,  have  wit  enough  for  so  biting  an  epigram? 

"You  think  you  are  vindicating  justice  and  me  and  the 
cause  of  law  and  order.  You  are  advertising  to  high  and 
low  a  bit  of  vilification  best  forgotten,  which  would  have 
gained  no  currency  but  for  your  action,  whereas  now  every 
one  who  has  read  the  verses  and  remembers  them  repeats 
them  to  all  and  sundry.  Thus  you  hurt  me  instead  of  pro 
tecting  me.  You  are  making  Paraguay  and  government 
and  law  and  justice  and  yourself  ridiculous. 

"Do  real  justice,  act  with  real  perspicacity.     Release 


494  EL   SUPREMO 

Don  Pascual  and  let  the  matter  blow  over  and  be  for 
gotten.  " 

Francia's  countenance  expressed  a  mingling  of  astonish 
ment,  scalded  vanity  and  unwilling  admiration. 

' ' Senorita, ' '  he  said,  "I.  have  always  held  that  a  wife 
with  brains,  with  a  cultivated  intellect,  with  a  mind  of  her 
own,  would  be  of  incalculable  value  to  any  public  man, 
and  especially  an  absolute  ruler.  I  perceive  that  I  am  right. 
I  foresee  for  Paraguay  long  years  of  inflexible  strictness 
from  me  tempered  by  advice  from  your  sensible  mildness. 

"  In  this  case  you  have  completely  won  me  over,  both 
heart  and  mind,  for  you  have  expressed  or  implied  argu 
ments  entirely  convincing  to  my  reason.  Your  request  is 
just. 

'  *  But  before  you  depart  to  release  the  man  I  have  hastily 
and  unintentionally  wronged,  give  me  leave  to  say  to  you 
that  I  tremble  at  the  results  for  Paraguay  should  you  press 
upon  me  petitions  for  unjust  or  unadvisable  indulgences, 
based  upon  whim  or  mere  sentiment.  In  this  case  I  accord 
what  I  approve.  But  I  feel  myself  utterly  weak  before  you. 
I  should  accord  you  anything,  however  much  I  disapproved 
of  it.  I  realise  that  I  know  you  will  never  abuse  your  power 
over  me,  but  I  tremble  for  Paraguay  if  you  ever  should. 
It  is  well  for  any  man  to  be  in  love ;  it  is  not  well  for  an 
autocrat  to  love  abjectly.  You  could  wheedle  me  into  au 
thorising  what  would  be  contrary  to  my  reason,  my  con 
science,  my  desires,  my  instincts.  I  know,  Seiiorita,  you 
will  use  your  dominance  for  the  good  of  both  of  us,  as  for 
the  good  of  all  Paraguay.  But  be  reverent  in  the  exercise 
of  your  sway.  For  I  could  refuse  you  nothing,  nothing, 
nothing.  Never  forget  that.  I  must  grant  any  request  of 
yours,  however  unconscionable  the  request  might  be,  how 
ever  quixotic  the  granting  of  it.  I  could  refuse  you  noth 
ing." 

Trembling  with  conflicting  passions,  he  turned  to  seize 
pen  and  paper  and  scribble  an  order. 

Naturally,  after  his  exaltation  of  soul  had  quieted,  the 
reaction  from  his  outburst  of  noble  sentiments  left  him  even 
more  than  usually  irritable.  As  he  returned  from  the  bar 
racks  a  wretched  mongrel  managed  to  get  trampled  under 
his  horse's  hoofs  and  set  up  a  hideous  yelping.  At  the 
Palacio  lie  called  Zoriila  and  reprimanded  him,  saying  that 


EMPRESS   VENTURA  495 

a  new  generation  of  dogs  could  not  have  matured  since  his 
last  order  to  rid  the  streets  of  them,  and  berating  him 
soundly  for  his  negligence. 

Hawthorne  had  never  narrated  to  any  one  Zorilla 's  dis 
comfiture,  nor  had  the  chagrined  lieutenant  ever  mentioned 
it  to  anybody,  for  he  feared  Hawthorne  even  more  than 
he  hated  him.  Now,  recalling  his  humiliation,  he  resolved 
to  spare  no  one's  pet  and  promised  himself  complete  grati 
fication  of  his  love  of  cruelty. 

Next  morning,  during  the  brief  period  of  comparative 
coolness  lingering  after  sunrise,  Ventura  was  indulging  in 
one  of  the  habits  she  had  learned  in  England  and  Massa 
chusetts,  and,  accompanied  only  by  Fruela,  was  enjoying 
an  almost  brisk  walk  through  the  lanes  to  the  southward  of 
the  Convent  of  Mercy.  As  she  neared  a  cross-lane  she  heard 
loud  and  angry  voices.  The  tall  cactus  hedges  prevented 
her  seeing  anything,  and  the  babel  of  shouts  was  unintelli 
gible.  She  had  no  inkling  of  what  she  was  to  see  when  she 
rounded  the  corner  and  came  upon  a  bevy  of  soldiers,  their 
dirty,  whitish  trousers  flapping  about  their  bare  ankles, 
yelling  at  an  old  gentleman  who  knelt  in  the  roadway,  his 
arms  clasped  about  two  beautiful  Malvinas  pointers.  On 
either  side  they  snuggled  to  him ;  he  had  a  protecting  arm 
round  the  neck  of  each.  Kneeling  on  one  knee  he  faced 
his  tormentors,  his  decent  black  suit  dusty,  his  long  silvery- 
hair  dishevelled  about  his  chalky,  pale  countenance,  des 
perate  but  brave. 

Ventura  knew  him  for  the  ex-Intendente. 

At  the  same  instant  she  heard  Zorilla  command: 

t( Seize  him!    Pull  the  dogs  from  him." 

Like  a  deer  Ventura  darted  among  the  ruffians.  Before 
their  momentary  hesitation  had  let  them  obey  the  order, 
she  had  spread  the  skirt  of  her  tupoi  over  the  old  man  and 
his  pets. 

"What  does  this  mean?"  she  demanded. 

Zorilla  cringed. 

"El  Supremo  has  decreed  that  the  streets  be  cleared  of 
all  vagrant  curs,"  he  explained. 

"And  you  misinterpreted  the  decree  as  a  license  to  you 
to  butcher  the  valuable  hunting-dogs  of  a  respected  noble- 
inan  ? ' '  she  hurled  back  at  him. 

"Oh,  very  well,  Senorita,"  Zorilla  deprecated,  "let  him 


496  EL   SUPREMO 

keep  Ms  dogs.  Let  him  keep  his  dogs."  And  he  added  in 
Guarani : 

"Come,  fellows." 

"Halt!"  cried  Ventura,  in  Spanish. 

* '  You  know  me ;  disobey  me  if  you  dare.  You  have  mis 
used  and  insulted  a  Spanish  gentleman.  You  are  neither  a 
Spaniard  nor  a  gentleman,  and  cannot,  if  you  would,  apolo 
gise  as  a  Spanish  gentleman  deserves.  But  unless  I  see 
and  hear  you  make  the  best  and  completest  apology  of 
which  you  are  capable,  make  it  here  and  now  and  aloud, 
make  it  both  in  Spanish  and  in  Guarani,  as  sure  as  I  am 
speaking  to  you,  you  shall  be  executed  before  noon  to-mor 
row." 

Zorilla  shot  at  her  one  glance  of  baffled,  impotent  hate, 
and  then  made  as  full  and  graceful  an  apology,  in  flowery 
Guarani  and  in  courtly  Castilian,  as  even  Ventura  could 
ask  for. 

The  tale  of  this  incident  was  told  in  every  household  in 
the  city.  If  anything  it  made  more  of  an  impression  than 
had  the  release  of  Don  Pascual  Echagiie. 


BOOK  IF 
BELTRAN 


(CHAPTER  xxxvJ 

GAUCHOS 
(1) 

ON  Hawthorne  and  his  escort  rode,  at  the  utmost  speed 
to  which  they  dared  urge  their  mounts,  at  a  steady 
gallop,  along  the  innumerable,  ever-branching,  crooked 
paths  broken  by  the  cattle  of  which  they  never  caught  a 
glimpse,  sometimes  down  into  a  dry  water-course  and  out 
again  on  the  other  side,  mostly  over  almost  perfectly  level 
plains;  around  them  the  waving  plumes  of  the  pampas- 
grass  or  the  nodding  purple  blooms  of  league-broad  thistle- 
ries,  over  whose  breeze-bowed  tops  they  could  barely  look 
when  standing  up  in  their  stirrups,  nothing  else  in  sight 
save  the  hot,  shimmering,  pampas-horizon  away  and  away 
all  to  their  left  and  the  imperceptibly  nearing  and  lifting 
blue  line  of  the  low  Cordillera  de  Maracayu  to  their  right ; 
above  them  the  cloudless,  speckless,  dark-blue  sky. 

The  sun  was  visibly  declining  when  Lopez  shouted  and 
pointed.  Hawthorne,  staring  through  the  heat  haze,  dis 
cerned  first  one  and  then  another  and  another  king- vulture, 
moving  in  vast,  slow  circles  far  up  in  the  air,  the  merest 
black  dots  against  the  firmament.  Later  he  made  out  a 
flock  of  ordinary  vultures  below  them,  but  even  so  barely 
discernible,  so  high  they  wheeled  and  soared.  Gazing  still 
in  the  direction  of  this  winged  convocation,  he  became  aware 
of  a  titanic  sable  cloud-column,  as  of  smoke  from  a  fierce 
conflagration,  only  it  swayed  and  eddied  without  any  sign 
of  an  upward  current  and  showed  not  blurred  and  dull  but 
sparkling,  jetty  black  against  the  sun  rays.  Towards  this 
portent  they  galloped  now,  Lopez  setting  the  pace,  without 
care  how  they  pressed  their  horses. 

Topping  a  slight  rise,  one  of  the  long,  easy  swells  of  the 
plain,  Hawthorne  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  low  house  or  hut 
above  which  the  strange  column  of  bright  blackness  pointed 
towards  the  sleepy  vultures  in  the  upper  air. 

With  a  shock  of  surprise,  certainty  and  repulsion  Haw- 

499 


500  EL   SUPREMO 

thorne  suddenly  realised  that  the  sable  shaft  against  the 
sky  was  a  great  cloud  of  flies. 

A  hint  of  breeze  breathed  against  their  faces  and  brought 
with  it  an  intolerable  stench. 

Kiding  clear  of  the  thistles  and  tall  grass  into  a  cropped 
and  trampled  space  maybe  a  half  mile  across,  Hawthorne 
saw  plain  the  low,  mud-walled,  sod-roofed  dwelling,  its 
doorless  doorway  and  shutterless  window  leering  blackly 
at  him,  beyond  it  the  ample  horse-corral  of  tall,  slender 
stakes  interlaced  with  raw-hide  ropes,  and  all  around  both 
a  wide  circle  of  ox-bones,  ox-skulls,  ox-skeletons,  white  and 
bleached,  of  ox-heads  still  showing  bits  of  hide,  and  among 
them  skeletons  not  yet  picked  bare,  and  a  dozen  or  more 
carcasses  in  every  stage  of  putrefaction,  a  horrid  ring  of 
putrescence  and  decay. 

Through  this  abomination  they  rode  to  the  hut.  In  its 
yawning  doorway  appeared  a  stocky  woman,  bare-foot, 
bare-armed,  bare-headed,  bare-bosomed,  clad  in  a  short- 
sleeved  homespun  gown;  then  beside  her  a  girl,  nearly  as 
tall,  but  slender,  and  similarly  half-clad.  From  behind  and 
between  them  swarmed  out  seven  children;  the  tallest  boy 
a  half -grown  urchin,  wearing  a  chiripd  and  poncho;  the 
others,  as  the  three  little  girls,  naked  as  they  were  born. 
Around  the  house  rode  two  Gauchos,  a  big  man  and  a  full 
grown  lad,  wearing  spurs,  botas  de  potro,  ample,  shaggy 
ponchos,  and  broad-brimmed,  close-crowned  felt  hats.  Both 
bestrode  flea-bitten  roans,  always  a  Gaucho's  choice;  each 
carried  a  lasso  in  front  of  his  high-peaked  saddle. 

Greetings  were  exchanged. 

The  Gaucho's  name  was,  characteristically,  Veremundo 
Cabral,  but  he  spoke  Spanish  and  was  lumpishly  well-dis 
posed.  He  shouted  to  his  son,  who  set  spurs  to  his  horse 
and  galloped  off.  Cabral,  like  all  of  his  kind,  no  more 
thought  of  asking  the  strangers  to  dismount  than  he  would 
have  dismounted  himself ;  he  hitched  his  right  knee  over  his 
saddle-bow,  ready  for  leisurely  conversation  until  sunset. 

The  woman,  however,  suggested  that  the  strangers  might 
be  thirsty  and  their  horses  hungry ;  whereupon  her  husband 
was  instantly  all  courtesy  and  solicitude,  the  native  Penin 
sular  graciousness  appearing  most  striking  in  so  swarthy, 
hairy  and  unkempt  a  giant.  After  the  girl  had  handed 
each  a  cow-horn  of  water,  the  soldiers  went  off  with  Cabral 


GAUCHOS  501 

to  picket  the  horses,  while  Hawthorne  and  Lopez  entered 
the  house. 

It  was  of  one  room,  mud-floored,  raftered  with  rough 
poles,  mere  sapling-trunks,  and  had  two  staring  windows 
on  the  side  opposite  the  window  and  door.  The  beds  were 
hide  stretchers  and  besides  these  the  house  had  for  furni 
ture  a  dozen  ox-skulls,  used  for  stools,  a  tall,  hogshead-like 
water-jar  of  red  earthenware,  a  rack  loaded  with  saddles 
and  other  horse  furniture,  and,  hanging  from  pegs  on  the 
mud-walls,  several  cow-horns  fitted  with  lid-covers,  a  num 
ber  of  iron  spits,  and  a  copper  mate-kettle  shaped  like  a  big 
tankard. 

A  small  mate-tercio  lay  in  one  corner  and  a  tobaceo- 
petacon  in  another. 

Hawthorne  and  Lopez  seated  themselves  on  skulls,  and 
drank  more  of  the  water  which  the  tall  girl  offered  until 
they  had  had  their  fill. 

The  woman,  staring  at  Hawthorne,  asked  if  he  was  a 
medico.  When  he  replied  that  he  had  no  knowledge  of  sur 
gery,  but  could  sometimes  remedy  diseases  which  did  not 
require  the  knife,  she  told  him  a  long  story  of  her  suffer 
ings  from  headaches  and  asked  his  help.  Hawthorne,  mind 
ful  of  Azara,  looked  at  her  hands  and  considered.  Finally, 
after  a  long  interval  of  reflection,  he  instructed  her  to  cut 
her  finger-nails  and  to  bathe  her  feet  well  and  carefully, 
then  to  lie  abed  for  at  least  two  days  and  nights.  Her  pain 
should  then  abate. 

Presently  the  soldiers  returned,  their  host  with  them, 
and,  just  as  they  approached,  a  shout  from  behind  made 
them  wheel  about. 

The  lad  was  galloping  up,  urging  before  him  a  frantic 
bullock  which  he  had  lassoed  over  its  horns.  Ten  yards 
from  the  house  he  threw  the  beast  by  a  dexterous  wrench 
of  the  hide-lasso.  Instantly  Cabral,  who  had  run  forward 
at  the  shout,  stabbed  the  victim  through  the  ribs  with  his 
sheath-knife. 

Then,  while  Cabral  and  the  lad  cut  into  the  slain 
bullock,  the  children  raked  the  ashes  from  a  covered 
bed  of  coals  some  yards  from  the  door,  piled  on  it 
pampas-grass-stems  and  thistle-stalks,  and  soon  had  a 
roaring  fire.  Standing  to  windward  of  this  they  roasted, 
on  long  spits,  strips  of  the  belly-meat  of  the  bullock, 


502 


EL   SUPREMO 


which  the  Gauchos  esteem  the  best  part  of  a  heef,  also 
chunks  of  the  inside  of  the  hind  legs  and  of  the  hack- 
muscles,  when  they  found  that  the  strangers  preferred 
those  portions. 

After  the  outside  of  the  meat  was  roasted  they  offered 
spit  and  all  to  one  or  the  other  of  their  guests,  who  each 
gnawed  off  the  outside  and  then  roasted  the  remainder 
further  to  his  liking. 

Sunset  found  the  soldiers  not  yet  replete,  though  Haw 
thorne,  and  soon  after  him  Lopez,  had  heen  surfeited  some 
time  before ;  as,  in  the  midst  of  all  that  charnel,  assailed  by 
the  sight  of  the  carcasses,  choked  by  the  stench  of  them, 
and  assaulted  by  the  myriads  of  blow-flies,  even  tired  trav 
ellers  could  feel  little  appetite. 

When  the  stars  came  out  the  Gaucho  gracefully  declared 
that  his  house  was  wholly  theirs.  He,  with  his  family,  lay 
down  under  the  open  sky,  only  raw-hides  between  them  and 
the  bare  ground,  only  their  ponchos  over  them,  leaving  their 
dwelling  to  their  guests.  Two  of  the  soldiers  preferred  to 
sleep  similarly  in  the  open,  two  lay  on  the  fioor  of  the  hut, 
two  took  the  vacant  stretchers  after  Hawthorne  and  Lopez 
had  composed  themselves  on  those  of  their  choice. 

As  the  hosts  were  far  out  of  earshot  and,  besides,  all 
snoring  audibly,  and  as  the  soldiers  spoke  only  Guarani, 
Hawthorne  and  Lopez  conferred  in  Spanish  before  they 
slept. 

After  some  exchange  of  opinions  as  to  the  condition  of 
the  men  and  horses  and  of  views  as  to  their  procedure  on 
the  morrow,  they  tried  to  slumber.  The  soldiers,  like  the 
residents,  were  noisily  asleep  already.  Lopez,  almost  as 
much  as  Hawthorne,  was  restless  in  the  midst  of  the  foul 
ness  about  them,  oppressed  by  the  stench  and  tormented  by 
the  mosquitoes. 

' '  How  can  people  live  among  such  horrors  ? ' '  Hawthorne 
exclaimed  irritably.  "How  can  they  endure  the  smell? 
How  do  they  ever  grow  up  ? ' ' 

"They  are  inured  to  the  stink,"  Lopez  rejoined  placidly. 
"They  are  born  in  it,  and  they  never  notice  it.  They  are 
too  lazy  to  kill  a  beef  any  further  from  their  fire  than  they 
must.  So  they  live  out  their  lives  in  this  festering  decay. 
All  Gaucho  homes  are  like  this. ' ' 

"I  read  about  them  in  Azara,"  Hawthorne  remarked 


GAUCHOS  503 

drowsily.  ' '  But  I  did  not  realise  how  disgusting  they  must 
be  until  now. ' ' 

At  the  first  light  of  dawn  they  were  roused  by  the  flies 
that  swarmed  over  their  faces,  crawled  into  their  nostrils, 
boomed  and  buzzed  in  their  ears.  They  had  another  meal 
of  scorched  beef  and  made  ready  to  be  off. 

Hawthorne  proposed  that  Cabral  supply  them  with  two. 
fresh  horses  and  guide  them  over  the  Cordillera. 

At  first  the  Gaucho  listened  sullenly.  Presently  his  wife, 
who  had  been  listening  from  a  respectful  distance,  came 
nearer  and  joined  in  the  discussion,  averring  that,  since 
the  stranger  had  cured  her  headache,  he  should  be  treated 
with  special  consideration.  Hawthorne  was  astonished  at 
this  interruption,  and  still  more  at  her  aid.  He  had  not 
seen  her  bathe  her  feet  and  she  had  lain  down  no  more  than 
any  other  member  of  her  family.  He  eyed  her  hands,  how 
ever,  and  saw  that  she  had  cut  her  finger-nails.  Her  in 
terference  did  not  seem  to  soften  her  husband's  mood,  for 
he  roughly  told  her  to  mind  her  own  business  and  not  put 
herself  forward  among  men.  Lopez,  with  all  a  Paraguay 
an's  engaging  patience  and  simplicity  of  bearing,  spoke 
long  and  persuasively. 

Suddenly  Cabral's  demeanour  altered.  Rising  from  the 
ox-skull  on  which  he  sat,  he  beckoned  Lopez  and  Hawthorne 
towards  a  pile  of  brushwood  some  fifty  yards  from  the  hut. 
Halting  by  it,  he  pointed  to  it  and  removed  his  sombrero. 

Without  knowing  why,  Hawthorne  felt  a  sort  of  chill,  a 
thrill  of  solemn  emotion.  The  great  empty  dome  of  sky 
seemed  all  at  once  a  hallowed  shrine.  That  incommuni 
cable,  innate  dignity  which  never  wholly  forsakes  the 
roughest  and  most  degraded  Castilian  suddenly  ennobled 
Cabral  and  all  about  him  irradiated  an  atmosphere  of  rev 
erence,  of  privacy,  of  consecration. 

"My  mother,"  he  began,  "was  the  best  woman  I  ever 
knew  or  heard  of.  God  never  created  a  better.  Her  last 
request  to  me  was  that  her  bones  might  be  buried  in  conse 
crated  ground,  and  I  made  oath  to  keep  my  pledge.  My 
father 's  bones  lie  in  the  old  churchyard  at  Guari,  and  when 
she  begged  me  for  that  last  promise  she  must  have  thought 
of  his  grave.  But  more  than  a  year  before,  though  none  of 
us  had  then  heard  of  it,  the  padre  at  Guari  had  died  of 
smallpox,  when  most  of  the  Indians  there  died  also.  The 


504  EL   SUPREMO 

remainder  were  too  weak  to  defend  themselves  when  the 
wild  Tobas  of  the  Gatemy  forests  crossed  the  river  and  fell 
upon  them.  They  were  all  massacred  and  the  huts  burned 
and  the  church  too.  So  when  I  rode  to  Guari,  swimming 
my  horse  over  the  Pequery  on  the  way,  I  found  only  some 
charred  beams  and  blackened  stones  left  of  the  church  and 
the  churchyard  all  overgrown  by  brambles. 

*  *  Who  knows  whether  consecrated  ground  keeps  its  holi 
ness  when  the  church  is  burned  and  no  priest  says  the  daily 
prayers?  I  know  not.  My  father's  bones  are  at  rest,  the 
ground  was  surely  sacred  when  we  laid  them  there.  But 
would  that  same  ground  be  consecrated  for  any  new  burial  ? 
"Who  can  say? 

"To  Guarapuava  I  dare  not  try  to  carry  her.  It  is 
too  far  away.  I  should  be  gone  too  long  from  my 
home. 

"So  I  have  left  here,  under  this  heap  of  brush,  all  that 
remains  of  my  dear  mother,  where  we  laid  her  the  night 
she  died,  and  covered  her  till  her  bones  might  be  white  and 
clean  to  gather  and  carry  as  I  had  promised. 

1  *  You  ride  to  Santa  Maria  or  to  Foz  de  Iguassu.  If  you 
will  give  me  your  word  and  oath  to  carry  my  mother's 
bones  to  either  church,  to  see  them  buried  in  holy  ground, 
to  have  the  padre  say  a  mass  for  her  soul,  you  may  have 
not  two  horses  but  ten,  and  your  choice  of  my  herd.  And 
my  son  Duarte  will  guide  you  up  the  easiest  pass  over  the 
Cordillera  to  the  top  whence  you  can  see  the  pampas  be 
yond,  down  the  pass  which  will  lea'd  you  to  the  open 
plains  above  the  headwaters  of  the  Taquary.  Only  ful 
fil  for  me  my  mother's  wish  and  you  shall  have  all  I  can 
give." 

Cabral's  eyes  were  tearless,  his  face  expressionless,  after 
the  fashion  of  his  kind,  who  shed  tears  not  twice  in  a  life 
time,  laugh  maybe  three  or  four  times  between  birth  and 
death  and  smile  not  more  than  twice  a  year ;  but  his  deep 
feeling  was  manifest  despite  his  even  tones  and  stolid 
bearing. 

' '  I  promise  all  you  ask, ' '  Hawthorne  said  with  more  emo 
tion  than  the  Gaucho. 

"And  will  you  swear?"  Cabral  insisted. 

"I  will  also  swear,"  Hawthorne  affirmed. 

"On  what?"  the  Gaucho  queried, 


GAUCHOS  505 

Hawthorne  slid  his  hand  into  his  bosom  and  brought  out 
his  testament. 

''This/'  he  said,  "is  a  copy  of  the  Holy  Evangel  such  as 
the  priest  reads  from  at  the  left-hand  side  of  the  altar  at 
mass.  On  this  will  I  swear." 

He  opened  the  book  and  exhibited  the  Greek  text. 

Cabral  's  face,  which  had  remained  impassive  when  he  had 
spoken  of  his  mother,  turned  grey  with  awe. 

"No  man  would  break  such  an  oath,"  he  said,  and  his 
voice  shook.  "Swear!" 

Formally  in  his  deepest-vowelled  Castilian  Hawthorne 
swore  and  kissed  the  shut  book. 

The  Gaucho  shouted  to  his  son,  who  hurled  himself  on  his 
horse's  back  and  galloped  furiously  away. 

Then  stolidly  and  without  a  variation  of  demeanour  Ca 
bral  fetched  the  hide  of  yesterday's  last  bullock,  cleared 
away  the  brushwood  and  gathered  the  bones,  no  two  now 
keeping  together,  into  the  green  hide.  Closely  he  packed 
them,  tightly  he  drew  the  hide,  firmly  he  laced  the  com 
pact  seron  with  a  long  raw-hide  thong. 

Hawthorne  and  Lopez  chose  such  horses  as  pleased  them 
from  the  herd  which  Duarte  had  meanwhile  driven  into 
the  corral.  Their  worn-out  beasts  were  left  with  the  herd, 
and  while  the  sun  was  yet  low  they  set  off,  Duarte  Cabral  in 
the  lead,  the  inconsiderable  oblong  hide  packet  lashed  be 
hind  his  saddle. 

Keeping  the  Cordillera  always  to  the  right,  scarcely 
drawing  nearer  to  it  at  all,  he  guided  them  over  an  almost 
perfectly  level  plain  for  twenty  waterless  leagues  before 
they  saw  ahead  the  wavering,  shimmering  fly-cloud  that 
marked  another  Gaucho  dwelling. 

Their  stay  was  a  repetition  of  the  night  before;  their 
host's  name  Pelagio  Guimaraes,  but  he,  as  had  Cabral, 
spoke  Spanish  of  a  sort. 

Guimaraes,  like  Cabral,  had  unburied  bones  waiting  con 
veyance  to  consecrated  ground.  His  first  wife,  sister  of  his 
present  wife,  had  died  five  years  before,  and  her  skeleton 
lay  under  a  heap  of  stones  by  the  corral.  Laced  in  a  hide 
seran,  they  too  were  slung  behind  one  of  the  soldiers. 

Next  day  they  were  entirely  among  the  low  foothills  of 
the  Cordillera,  and  by  noon  were  picking  their  way  at  a 
slow  walk  up  a  narrow,  freshet-washed  valley,  between 


506  EL   SUPREMO 

round-shouldered  mountains,  blunt  and  squat,  forest-cor- 
ered  to  their  domed  summits. 

Hawthorne  thought  he  espied  yerba  trees  up  a  side-gully 
and  horrified  their  guide  by  wasting  time  while  he  climbed 
tip  to  see.  They  were  yerba  trees  of  a  kind,  but  all  he 
reached  of  the  inferior,  spotted-leaved  variety. 

They  camped  only  when  it  was  too  dark  to  see. 

Next  day,  before  noon,  Duarte  triumphantly  checked  his 
horse  at  the  crest  of  a  long  gravelly  gorge,  and  pointed  in 
front  of  him  down  an  easy-sloping  cove  that  expanded  into 
a  broad  valley  opening  on  the  pampas  beyond. 

Then  he  took  from  his  horse  the  pitiful  little  seron,  now 
shrunk  with  two  days'  sun  to  a  hard,  tight-stretched  cylin 
der,  and  lashed  it  behind  Hawthorne 's  saddle. 

When  it  was  fast  he  leapt  upon  his  mount  and  began  his 
return  without  a  word  or  gesture  of  farewell. 

Far  down  the  vista,  a  league  or  more  beyond  the  mouth 
of  the  valley,  they  could  make  out  above  the  level  horizon 
against  the  blurred  blue  skyline  a  wavy  thread  of  black 
ness,  a  mere  filament,  the  pillar  of  swarming  flies  that 
marked  their  day  Js  goal,  the  next  Gaucho  homestead ;  and 
above  it  the  sleepy  vultures  soaring  drowsily  in  the  firma 
ment. 

They  found  food  and  repellent  shelter  that  night  at  the 
cabin  of  Felipe  Corbulon,  a  Gaucho  less  grim  and  stern 
than  those  north  of  the  Cordillera.  His  dwelling  had  stout 
hide  curtains  to  hang  at  the  door  and  in  the  windows  at 
night  or  in  rainstorms.  He  was  visibly  proud  of  this  un 
usual  comfort. 

From  his  abode,  also,  they  carried  away  hide-laced  bones 
to  be  buried  at  Santa  Maria,  which  he  averred  was  nearer 
than  Foz  de  Iguassu. 

(2) 

Next  day,  when  the  Cordillera  was  already  only  a  blue 
line  against  the  sky  far  behind  them,  and  all  the  rest  of 
their  horizon  was  as  level  as  the  plain  they  traversed,  Lopez 
shaded  his  eyes  with  his  hand  and  peered  far  away  to  his 
left.  Then  he  pointed.  Staring  in  that  direction,  Haw 
thorne  descried  a  horseman  at  a  furious  gallop.  He  was 
riding  at  a  long  angle  to  their  course,  so  as  to  intercept 


GAUCHOS  507 

them  when  their  lines  met.  Before  Hawthorne  could  make 
up  his  mind  as  to  whether  the  horseman  was  alone,  a  shout 
from  one  of  the  soldiers  directed  their  attention  to  their 
right.  Similarly  galloping  to  head  them  off,  appeared  an 
other  rider  far  away  on  the  horizon. 

Their  tired  horses,  their  probable  distance  from  water, 
their  scanty  supplies  of  charque,  made  it  imperative  that 
they  keep  on  at  their  highest  safe  speed.  As  they  cantered 
along,  Hawthorne  and  Lopez  conferred. 

"Surely,"  Hawthorne  called,  "there  can  be  no  Portu 
guese  south  of  the  Cordillera." 

"There  is  no  'surely'  when  Paulistas  are  concerned," 
Lopez  shouted  back  at  him.  "Mamelucos  may  be  here 
abouts  for  all  we  can  tell,  though  we  know  of  nothing  to 
attract  them  here  now." 

"If  they  are  Paulistas,"  Hawthorne  rejoined,  "they  are 
only  two." 

"Who  can  tell,"  Lopez  shrugged,  "how  many  may  be 
following  them  ?  We  can  only  take  our  chances. ' ' 

When  the  furiously  galloping  riders  came  near,  they 
could  make  out  that  each  carried  something  on  his  horse, 
both  behind  and  also  on  the  saddle-bow  before  him. 

Nearer  yet  appeared  plainly  children  clinging  to  each 
rider,  two  to  one,  and  three,  a  half-grown  girl  behind  and 
two  little  boys  before,  to  the  other.  Jolted  and  bounced  and 
positively  flung  aloft  at  each  leap  of  the  horse,  they  hung 
on  somehow. 

The  first  who  came  within  hail  ranged  his  beast  along 
side,  kept  up  with  them,  and  shouted  to  inquire  whether 
any  one  of  them  was  a  cleric  and  would  baptise  his  chil 
dren.  When  they  made  it  clear  to  him  that  his  chase  was 
in  vain,  he  waved  a  brown  hand,  let  his  horse  slacken  its 
pace,  and  was  swallowed  up  into  the  plain  behind  the  next 
expanse  of  giant  thistles. 

So  of  him  that  drew  near  from  the  west.  His  face  show 
ing  no  change  at  his  bitter  disappointment,  he  turned  back 
with  his  progeny  unchristened  into  the  prayerless,  priest- 
less  vastness  of  the  empty  wilderness;  he  sank  out  of  sight 
into  its  illimitable  levels. 


5o8  EL   SUPREMO 


(3) 

Nothing  he  had  come  across  in  books  about  Guayra,  noth 
ing  he  had  heard  from  Paraguayans  who  professed  to  know 
the  region  or  know  of  it,  had  led  Hawthorne  to  expect  to 
find  marshes  along  the  Jejuy-Guazu.  But  interminable 
swamps  forced  them  farther  and  farther  east.  When  at 
last  they  came  to  a  clean,  sharply  banked  stream  the  cur 
rent  was  swift  and  the  narrow  river  too  deep  to  be  ford- 
able.  Still  moving  eastward  they  saw  approaching  them 
two  horsemen  not  at  a  gallop  but  at  a  walk.  Nearer,  they 
made  out  that  one  was  leading  the  other's  horse.  When 
they  were  close,  they  saw  that  the  rider  of  the  led-horse 
swayed  and  lurched  as  the  beast  moved  along.  Even  be 
fore  they  came  within  hail  of  the  leader,  they  could  see  that 
the  man  on  the  horse  he  led  was  held  up  by  a  sort  of  Saint 
Andrew's  cross  of  two  sloping  poles,  lashed  to  the  girths. 
The  outline  of  humanity  behind  this  support  was  fastened 
to  it  by  straps  round  the  legs  and  a  sling  of  strips  of  hide 
under  the  arm-pits.  The  upper  ends  of  the  two  sticks  pro 
jected  beyond  the  figure 's  head,  which  nodded  and  lurched 
horribly  between  them. 

Suddenly  Hawthorne  felt  a  qualm  burn  through  his 
brain. 

The  figure  on  the  led-horse,  the  human  shape  under  the 
hemispherical  crown  and  broad  brim  of  the  weather-beaten 
hat,  inside  the  sun-faded,  threadbare  poncho,  was,  he  real 
ised,  a  corpse,  propped  up  thus  in  its  garb  of  life  to  be 
conveyed  to  its  last  resting  place. 

The  rider  of  the  first  horse  was  a  Catalan,  but  with  man 
ners  altogether  Castilian.  His  name  he  told  them  was 
Andres  Garavito.  His  brother  had  died  the  day  before  and 
he  was  taking  his  body,  in  the  fashion  usual  among  Gau- 
chos  when  near  a  church  (fifty  miles  or  less  they  called 
"near"),  to  Foz  de  Iguassu  for  burial. 

Yes,  he  knew  of  a  ford;  they  had  missed  it  half  a 
league  farther  downstream;  it  was  of  a  sort  to  deceive 
strangers. 

In  this  gruesome  company  they  reached  Foz  de  Iguassu, 
which  they  found  was  the  same  as  Santa  Maria,  at  the  con 
fluence  of  the  Iguassu  and  Parana. 


GAUCHOS  509 

After  the  padre  had  duly  buried  the  bones  and  said  the 
masses  in  their  sight  and  hearing,  Garavito  obligingly  of 
fered  to  guide  them  back  northward  along  the  Parana  to 
find  their  Payaguas. 

These  they  actually  encountered  on  the  third  day,  only 
two  missing,  and  the  survivors  stolidly  indifferent  to  their 
comrades'  death  and  to  their  own  past  dangers  and  priva 
tions. 

Garavito,  more  mannered  than  Duarte  Cabral,  bade  them 
farewell  civilly  and  galloped  off  eastward. 

They  were  ferried  over  the  broad,  placid  river,  explored 
the  Rio  Acaray,  passed  on  down  the  Parana  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Rio  Monday,  which  they  ascended  to  Minangua  and 
along  which  they  found  many  extensive  yerbales,  even 
thicker  than  those  by  the  Acaray. 

When  again  they  drifted  down^  to  the  Parana,  they  passed 
on  down  the  big,  still  river,  making  brief  excursions  into 
Paraguay  up  the  rivers  called  Pirapyta,  Yucay  and  Gyra- 
pay,  along  which  they  found  the  forests  one  vast  yerbal; 
and  into  the  wasted  upper  territories  of  Missiones  on  the 
other  side  up  the  Mbocay,  Aguaray  and  Piray-guazu,  now 
shrunken  rills,  then  streams  ideal  for  canoeing  and  flowing 
through  endless  monies  of  the  finest  Paraguayan  yerbctr 
trees. 

At  Corpus,  the  first  surviving  mission-hamlet,  they 
landed.  The  square  was  weed-grown,  the  huts  sagged 
drunkenly  sideways,  sun-warped  and  rain-sodden,  not  one 
repaired  for  years  past,  the  roofs  rifted  and  unfit  to  keep 
out  water.  The  shops  where  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  ma 
sons,  weavers,  shoemakers  and  tailors  had  worked  when  the 
Jesuits  ruled  were  now  vanished;  their  places  could  be 
barely  made  out  on  one  side  of  the  square  where  the  up- 
sprung  briars  and  brambles  grew  in  vaguely-apparent  rec 
tangles  along  the  collapsed  ruins.  The  church  was  half 
roofless,  its  walls  green  with  mould  and  nettles  growing 
from  the  mouldy  chinks,  the  stones  bare  of  whitewash  and 
blackened  by  the  weather.  The  gardens  and  farm  fields 
were  mostly  weed-choked,  the  orchards  cut  down,  the  yerba- 
plantations  dissolving  into  the  general  scrub  of  upgrowth, 
neither  shrubbery  nor  forest,  which  was  burying  the  for 
mer  cultivation. 

Hawthorne's  buoyant  disposition  felt  the  depression  of 


510  EL   SUPREMO 

the  Indians'  dogged  hopelessness  and  acquiescent  misery. 
Apathetic  and  listless,  they  lounged  about  their  wretched 
hovels  and  scarcely  less  lethargic  they  dragged  themselves 
to  their  manioc  fields,  did  there  some  half-hearted  weeding 
or  hoeing  and  as  dispiritedly  dragged  themselves  back  to 
the  mockery  of  a  town. 

San  Ignacio  Miri,  Loreto  and  Santa  Ana  were  as 
Corpus. 

From  them  Candelaria  differed  only  in  the  magnitude  of 
its  downfall.  They  were  hamlets  of  some  two  hundred, 
shrunken  from  villages  of  maybe  a  thousand ;  where  three 
thousand  had  prospered,  now  six  hundred  starved  at  what 
was  still  called  Candelaria. 

Its  church  was  a  more  hideous  ruin  in  that  its  interior 
still  showed  blackened  lines  of  gilding  and  mildewed  hang 
ings,  once  crimson.  So  much  mould  had  spread  and  thick 
ened  on  its  walls  that  it  formed  a  sort  of  soil,  from  which 
grew  not  only  nettles,  but  trailing  vines.  Each  window- 
sill  was  a  bed  of  noxious  greenery. 

The  college  was  still  covered  by  the  skeleton  of  a  roof, 
but  the  rafters  were  ready  to  fall  and  threatened  to  crash 
down  at  any  moment,  the  remains  of  tiles  on  them  were  but 
a  reminder  that  a  roof  there  once  had  been.  The  ample 
patio,  formerly  a  level  of  brickwork,  showed  no  trace  of  its 
pristine  smooth  pavement  beneath  a  growth  of  thorny 
weeds  almost  shoulder  high. 

The  gardens,  orchards  and  i/er&a-plantations  had  van 
ished  more  completely  than  those  of  Corpus.  All  was  a 
mere  jungle  of  wild  growth,  where  sixty  years  before  they 
had  supplied  even  an  abundance  of  every  variety  of  veg 
etable  and  fruit  which  the  soil  and  climate  could  produce; 
now  Don  Felipe,  the  fat  curate,  anxious  to  do  honour  to 
his  distinguished  guests,  could  set  before  Lopez  and  Haw 
thorne  no  better  fare  than  beef,  poultry,  cabbage  and  In 
dian  corn  with  the  inevitable  mate. 

He  was  a  plump  and  jolly  man,  and  talked  of  organising 
a  fete  for  the  following  day. 

Lopez  bowed  and  smiled,  but  Hawthorne  could  not  im 
agine  festivities  amid  such  dreary  surroundings  and,  as 
they  sat  under  the  tiny  portico  of  the  parsonage,  gazed 
with  disfavour  at  the  neglect,  filth  and  wretchedness  all 
about. 


HIDES  511 


CHAPTER   XXXVI 

HIDES 

EAGER  to  escape  from  the  squalid  misery  and  hopeless 
desolation  of  what  had  once  been  a  bustling  town,  Haw 
thorne,  after  thanking  Padre  Felipe  for  his  hospitality  and 
his  wish  to  entertain  them  with  shows  and  games,  when  he 
felt  that  he  had  said  enough  for  the  needs  of  politeness, 
talked  of  his  anxiety  to  return  promptly  to  Asuncion,  of 
El  Supremo's  injunctions  concerning  haste,  and  enquired 
of  Lopez  whether  they  could  not  cross  the  river  that  after 
noon  and  push  on  the  next  day  to  Motas.  Lopez  smiled  a 
mysterious  smile,  a  smile  Hawthorne  had  learned  to  know 
well. 

"Not  to-day,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said  gently,  "nor 
yet  to-morrow.  We  shall  be  able  to  see  the  bull-fights  and 
plays,  to  enjoy  Padre  Filipe's  entertainments.  It  will  not 
be  possible  for  us  to  cross  the  river  until  Thursday  morn 
ing." 

Hawthorne  recognised  the  tone  and  inwardly  resigned 
himself  to  the  delay.  Merely  for  pastime  he  argued  and 
wheedled.  Lopez's  tones  grew  silkier  and  silkier,  and  his 
smile  blander  and  blander.  Clearly,  his  mind  was  made  up 
and  it  was  equally  plain  that  his  reasons  for  delay  could 
not  be  discovered. 

As  they  were  discussing  the  matter,  Tolomeo  reappeared, 
running  at  the  top  of  his  speed  and  all  out  of  breath. 

"Artiguenos!"  he  gasped. 

Padre  Felipe  waved  a  plump  hand. 

"Be  not  afraid!"  he  wheezed.  "The  Artiguenos  will 
respect  us. ' ' 

uYou  are  friendly  with  them?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

"I  rode  once  a  hundred  leagues,"  the  good  father  as 
serted,  "to  give  absolution  to  one  of  them;  thirty  leagues 
I  have  ridden  a  score  of  times  on  similar  errands.  With  me 
they  are  lambs." 

Yet  Hawthorne  noticed  Lopez  hitch  his  sabre  forward 
and  inspect  his  pistols,  and  it  was  with  some  trepidation 
that  he  caught  sight  of  a  cloud  of  dust  out  on  the  plain,  saw 
it  rapidly  near  them,  descried  through  it  the  forms  of  men 


'512  EL   SUPREMO 

on  horseback,  and  made  out  their  appearance  as  they  tort, 
down  the  street  towards  the  parsonage. 

In  a  tornado  of  dust  they  swept  up  to  the  very  edge  of 
the  verandah,  with  Gaucho  precipitancy  reining  up  their 
dripping  mounts  in  the  space  of  their  own  length,  and, 
staring  at  the  group  in  front  of  the  parsonage,  sat  easily 
in  their  saddles,  some  twenty  tatterdemalion  ruffians,  their 
sabres  dangling  by  their  potro  boots,  their  ragged  ponchos 
hanging  anyhow,  their  fierce  eyes  glaring  from  under  their 
hat-brims,  every  face  masked  in  dust,  every  man  and  horse 
fairly  hidden  under  a  coating  of  it. 

Nearest  to  the  priest  and  his  guests  stood  a  magnificent 
horse  terribly  lean  and  appallingly  blown.  More  even  than 
the  rest  his  colour  was  almost  concealed  under  his  outer 
bkin  of  dust,  sweat  and  lathered  foam.  His  gored  sides 
heaved,  his  nostrils  panted,  he  champed  his  enormous  bit, 
tossed  his  handsome  head,  and,  as  the  bubbles  poured  from 
his  mouth,  besprinkled  with  froth  both  himself  and  his 
master. 

He,  clearly  leader  of  the  band,  was  a  tall,  raw-boned, 
ferocious-looking  man.  He  wore  potro  boots,  with  rusty 
iron  spurs,  their  rowels  two  inches  in  diameter.  A  great 
sabre  in  a  rusty  steel  scabbard  hung  by  them,  from  a  belt 
of  half-tanned  leather,  much  worn,  smeared  and  stained, 
into  which  were  thrust  two  big  cavalry  pistols  and  a  large 
knife  with  a  leathern  sheath.  His  chiripd  was  mostly  hid 
den  under  a  long,  tattered  poncho  through  the  rents  in 
which  showed  the  red  facings  and  blue  cloth  of  a  soiled 
and  faded  jacket.  Under  a  foraging  cap  and  haloed  about 
by  a  prodigious  abundance  of  red  hair,  red  beard  and  red 
moustachios,  all  matted  with  sweat  and  powdered  with  dust, 
his  face,  set  off  by  a  pair  of  huge,  plain  gold  hoop  earrings, 
its  parched  lips  hanging  with  great  pieces  of  shrivelled 
skin,  showed  sunburnt  almost  to  blackness  and  blistered  to 
the  eyes,  which  sparkled,  blue-grey,  bright  and  brilliant. 

He  eyed  the  party  under  the  verandah  with  a  stare  of 
comical  disappointment,  and  seemed  too  much  taken  aback 
to  utter  a  word. 

The  priest  greeted  him  civilly,  addressing  him  as  "Don 
Pedro, ' '  and  invited  him  to  dismount  and  enter. 

"No  se  afliffi*.  Pai  Felipe, "  the  red-headed  portent  re 
plied.  "L'iJtirmos  l)iw-  aqui." 


HIDES  513 

The  local  Spanish  words  were  uttered  with  such  a  strange 
accent,  gluing  them  together,  as  it  were  like  butter-sauce 
over  a  pudding,  that  Hawthorne  scrutinised  the  man  with 
sharpened  attention  and  listened  to  him  with  all  his  ears. 

After  thus  bidding  Padre  Felipe  not  to  bother  and  de 
claring  that  they  were  very  well  where  they  were,  he  went 
on  in  the  same  queer  Spanish  to  say  that  he  had  heard 
Padre  Felipe  had  as  guest  a  gentleman  from  North  Amer 
ica,  a  " Senor  Americano  del  Norte." 

"This  is  he  himself,"  the  priest  explained,  indicating 
Hawthorne.  "Don  Guillermo  Atorno,  whom  you  behold 
with  your  eyes. ' ' 

At  this  the  carroty  giant's  countenance  displayed  in 
rapid  succession  bewildered  amazement,  incredulous  as 
tonishment,  and  reluctant  belief ;  he  pulled  off  his  foraging 
cap,  made  a  sort  of  obeisance,  extremely  awkward  and  un 
mistakably  Hibernian,  and  burst  out  into  English,  or  rather 
Irish ;  for  every  syllable  was  flooded  under  the  thick  Con- 
naught  brogue  which  had  disguised  his  Castilian  utter 
ance. 

"Glory  be  tu  God,  Sorr,"  he  began.  "Ut's  a  glad  man 
Oi  am  tu  clap  me  oyes  ahn  yez. " 

Here  he  broke  off  and  flung  over  his  shoulder  in  Spanish 
a  brief  bark  of  an  order  to  his  ruffians,  at  the  sound  of 
which  all  save  one  wheeled  their  horses  and  spurred  off  as 
they  had  come.  As  the  noise  of  their  departure  lessened  in 
the  distance,  he  recommenced : 

1 '  Oi  didn  't  know  yez,  Yer  Anner.  Oi  'd  niver  hov  known 
yez  for  an  Americano  del  Norte.  Shure  Oi  wuz  lukin'  for 
a  little  whipper-shnapper  ov  a  man  all  dandified,  wid  silver 
shpurs.  an'  a  silver-handled  knoife  in  his  bute-leg,  an'  a 
silver  knob  ahn  his  rebenque  whip-handle,  an'  his  waist  all 
squeedged  in  wid  a  red  sash  an'  shinin'  brass  buttons 
crowthin'  aitch  other  all  up  an'  down  his  blue  jacket,  an' 
wid  his  poncho  danglin'  behin'  him  loike  the  villian  in  a 
play  at  a  theayter,  an'  wid  a  bow  in  his  button-hole  an' 
gloves  wid  gauntlets  loike  thot  wasp,  thot  jackanapes,  thot 
thafe  av  the  wurruld  Tuckerman,  him  as  calls  himself 
Don  Korkey.  Shure,  he's  the  wan  Narth  Amurrican  iver 
Oi  set  oyes  ahn.  Begob,  Oi  thot  all  Amurricans  wuz  the 
sphit  an'  immidge  av  him.  Shure,  ye 're  not  thot  sort  av  a 
man  at  all  at  all,  Sorr.  Glory  be  tu  God,  ye  're  a  f  oine  up- 


514  EL   SUPREMO 

sthandin'  lad.  Ye 're  fit  far  an  Englishman  or  an  Oirish- 
man,  anny  day.  Gal  way 'd  not  be  ashamed  tu  own  yez, 
Sorr.  Ut's  a  glad  man  Oi  am  tu  be  lukin'  at  yez,  as  Oi  wuz 
say  in '.  Shure,  Oi've  cut  the  camp  a  hundred  leagues  an' 
more  all  far  tu  talk  wid  yes,  Sorr.  Glory  be  tu  God,  Oi  'm  in 
toime.  An'  moight  Oi  ask  yez,  Yer  Anner,  wull  yez  be  here 
the  morn,  or  are  yez  lavin'  the  noight  or  the  mornin' 
early?" 

"I  shall  be  here  until  Thursday,"  Hawthorne  replied, 
with  a  glance  at  Lopez. 

' '  Glory  be  tu  God ! "  the  Irish  Gaucho  ejaculated.  ' '  Thin 
we  can  talk  at  our  aize.  Oi'll  be  here  an  hour  afther  sun- 
roise,  an '  Oi  '11  ask  yere  lave  tu  opin  a  matther  av  business 
wid  yez.  Now  Oi'm  toired  an'  hungry  an'  thirsty  wid 
ridin'  all  day  in  the  sun.  Oi'll  be  aff  tu  me  min,  Yer 
Anner." 

Padre  Felipe,  interpreting  his  tone  and  look,  urged  that 
he  dismount  and  sup  with  them.  Hawthorne  joined  in  with 
an  attempt  at  persuasion. 

The  weary  centaur  refused  the  invitation  in  his  blurred 
Spanish,  adding  to  Hawthorne : 

" Oi'll  be  bist  aff  wid  a  belly  full  av  the  beef  me  byes '11 
be  roastin'  by  now.  An',  av  Oi  wuz  tu  lave  thim  tu  thim- 
silves,  God  knows  wut  they'd  burn  or  who  they'd  kill  be 
fore  sundown." 

With  this  he  galloped  off,  followed  by  his  solitary  re 
tainer,  a  stockish  fellow,  whose  hair  showed  very  black 
even  under  its  coat  of  dust. 

'  *  "Who  is  that  man,  Pai  Felipe  ? ' '  Hawthorne  queried. 

"That,"  the  Padre  returned  impressively,  "is  Colonel 
Don  Pedro  Cambel,  the  most  beloved  and  trusted  follower 
of  our  ever-victorious  Protector  of  the  Banda  Oriental — 
General  Don  Jose  Gervasio  Artigas." 

"Surely,"  Hawthorne  exclaimed,  "he  is  an  Irishman." 

"I  have  heard,"  said  Padre  Felipe  indifferently,  "the 
name  of  the  country  from  which  he  came,  but  I  do  not  re 
call  it.  It  may  be  as  you  conjecture,  Senor  Don  Guiller- 
mo." 

' '  How  on  earth  did  he  come  into  this  part  of  the  world  ? ' ' 
Hawthorne  asked. 

"I  seem  to  recollect,"  the  Padre  mused,  "that  when  Gen 
eral  Lord  Beresford  invaded  the  viceroyalty,  Don  Pedro 


HIDES  515 

was  a  sergeant  in  his  army;  that  he  was  taken  prisoner, 
held  until  after  the  English  had  sailed  away,  escaped, 
joined  Don  Gervasio,  rose  rapidly  in  his  estimation,  and  is 
now  his  right-hand  man." 

In  response  to  further  questions,  the  Padre  told  many 
tales  of  the  Irish  Gaucho;  of  his  prodigious  strength,  his 
amazing  daring;  his  skill  in  the  Gaucho  duel  fought  hand 
to  hand,  each  adversary  with  a  long  knife  in  his  right  hand 
and  a  poncho  round  his  left;  of  his  ability  to  quell  any 
riot,  free-fight  or  outbreak,  whether  in  the  street  or  in  a 
drink-shop,  by  dashing  among  the  combatants  with  a  whirl 
ing  sabre  and  distributing  slashing  cuts,  usually  upon  the 
parties  at  fault;  of  his  incredible  prowess  in  battle;  of 
his  superhuman  endurance  of  heat,  cold,  thirst,  hunger  and 
fatigue;  of  his  exemplary  piety  when  he  had  leisure  for 
religious  duties. 

Such  anecdotes  occupied  the  gathering  until  bedtime. 

Next  morning,  after  a  long  night's  sleep  and  a  leisurely 
breakfast,  Hawthorne  sat  under  Padre  Felipe's  verandah 
smoking  and  watching  for  the  dust  of  a  galloping  horse 
man.  No  dust  appeared.  Instead,  he  saw  approach,  along 
the  uneven  space  of  mounds  and  hollows  miscalled  a  street, 
two  men  on  foot. 

The  shorter  walking  meekly,  some  paces  in  the  rear,  was 
an  ordinary  Gaucho  Artigueno,  wearing  a  sombrero,  a  pon 
cho  and  potro  boots  with  big  spurs,  against  which  clattered 
a  long  cavalry  sabre. 

The  taller  man  who  strode  ahead,  wore  top-boots  of  Eu 
ropean  cut ;  brown  velveteen  breeches ;  a  broad  scarlet  sash, 
over  it  a  black  leather  belt  from  which  hung  a  sabre  in  a 
new  scabbard ;  a  nearly  clean  white  waistcoat  which  showed 
a  gold  watch-chain  and  seal;  and  a  ruffled  shirt,  almost  as 
clean  as  the  waistcoat.  Round  his  neck  was  knotted  a  la 
Byron  a  yellow  silk  kerchief.  Notably  he  wore  a  coat,  and 
no  man  in  the  valley  of  the  Kio  de  la  Plata  wore  a  coat  in 
those  times  unless  he  was  a  dandy  or  a  personage  or  as 
pired  to  be  one  or  both. 

This  coat  was  probably  the  only  coat  then  in  Candelaria 
and  not  improbably  the  only  coat  displayed  there  in  fifty 
years;  an  undeniable  coat  with  skirts,  pocket-flaps,  cuff- 
flaps,  yellow  linings,  yellow  facings,  and  yellow  buttons;  a 
coat  of  cloth  much  worn  and  faded,  but  still  recognisable 


516  EL   SUPREMO 

as  once  of  Mazarine  blue;  a  coat  parading  in  one  of  the 
buttonholes  of  its  broad  collar-flap  a  trieoloured  rosette. 

The  face  of  its  wearer  showed  clean-shaven  under  his  big 
straw  hat,  with  its  broad  ribbon  of  patriots'  blue. 

Only  the  plain  gold  hoop-earrings  and  the  red  hair  iden 
tified  the  exiled  son  of  Erin  of  the  previous  evening. 

When  within  speaking  distance,  he  pulled  off  his  hat  and 
made  a  rather  stiff  but  very  low  bow,  at  once  pouring  out  a 
torrent  of  speech : 

"Shure,  Sorr,"  he  began,  "nt's  Oi  thot  wuz  the  fule,  an* 
afther  cuttin'  the  camp  a  hundhred  leagues  tu  see  yez." 

Hawthorne  perceived  that  the  exile  was  thinking  partly 
in  Spanish  and  that  "cut  the  camp"  stood  for  "cortar  el 
campa,"  "cross  the  country."  In  fact,  to  the  end  of  his 
interview  with  Hawthorne,  he  spoke  of  the  country  always 
as  "the  camp." 

"Yer  Anner,"  he  went  on,  "Oi  wuz  thot  tuk  aback  at 
soight  av  yez  thot  Oi  clane  furgot  me  manners.  Oi  nayther 
tould  yez  me  name  nor  asked  yez  yer  awn.  Savin '  yer  pris- 
ince,  Sorr,  what  wud  yez  be  callin'  yersilf  in  yer  awn  coun- 
thry,  now?" 

When  he  was  told,  he  extended  a  big,  freckled  paw. 

"  An'  ut's  a  proud  man  Oi  am,  Misther  Hawthorne,  Sorr, 
tu  shake  yez  be  the  hand,  Sorr.  Me  father's  name  (God 
rist  his  sowl!)  wuz  Terence  Campbell."  (He  pronounced 
it  with  a  strong  accent  on  the  last  syllable.)  "Terence 
Campbell  av  Killconnell  he  wuz,  an*  ut  wuz  Payther  he 
hod  me  christhened  at  Killconnell  parish  church,  Mary  be 
gud  tu  him.  Whin  Oi  wuz  a  shlip  av  a  bye,  Oi  wint  up  tu 
Dublin  tu  me  uncle 's  thannery  tu  larn  the  thanner  's  thrade, 
an'  well  he  larned  ut  tu  me.  Shure  an'  theer  Oi  fill  in  luv 
wid  a  foine  bit  av  a  gurrl,  a  blue-oyed,  goulden-haired 
fairy,  named  Katy  O'Hara.  Ut  WTUZ  all  thru  her  Oi  gut 
into  thrubble  an'  'listed  far  a  sodger.  An'  so  Oi  kem  tu 
be  wid  the  ould  Sivinty-Furst  av  the  loine  whin  we  tuk  the 
Cape,  an'  wuz  promothed  tu  be  a  sergeant,  an'  so,  whin 
Admiral  Sorr  Home  Popham  sailed  frum  the  Cape,  Oi  wuz 
sergeant  in  the  ould  Sivinty-Furst.  An'  so  Oi  kem  tu  this 
counthry.  An',  bein'  tuk  prisoner,  Oi  wuz  lift  whin  Gin- 
eral  Lord  Beresford  sailed  away  home;  an'  so  Oi  cum  ta 
Corrientes  tu  Don  Angel  Blanco 's  thannery  theer.  Thin, 
whin  the  wars  begun,  Oi  jined  wid  Gineral  Artigas,  an/ 


HIDES  517 

here  Oi  am,  Sorr.  Here  they  do  be  callin'  me  Don  Paythro 
Cambel  an'  Oi'm  Coronel  o'  cavalry  an'  Oi  roide  wid  anny- 
wheers  frum  twinty  to  eight  hundhred  bully  byes  at  me 
ardhers,  ivery  wan  av  thim  riddy  tu  doy  fur  Don  Paythro 
Cambel,  Coronel  undher  Gineral  Don  Jose  Gervasio  Ar- 
tigas,  Lord  Purthector  av  the  Banda  Oriental.  An'  now, 
Yer  Anner,  yez  du  be  knowin'  who  ye 're  talkin'  wid.  Oi'm 
Don  Paythro  Cambel  thot  wuz  Pate  Campbell  in  Dublin  an' 
this  is  me  page,  Don  Eduardo,  thot  wuz  Eddie  Geoghegan 
in  Tipperary  befure  he  tuk  tu  sodgerin'." 

Here  he  pointed  to  his  ponchoed,  po£r0-booted,  bare-toed 
equerry,  and,  after  shaking  hands  all  round,  took  the  chair 
by  Hawthorne.  His  page,  impassive  as  a  genuine  Gaucho, 
squatted  by  the  wall  in  the  sun. 

The  priest 's  peon  brought  mate  and  cigars. 

They  sipped,  puffed  and  regarded  each  other. 

As  soon  as  his  cigar  was  drawing  well,  the  visitor  con 
tinued  his  breathless  outpourings  of  speech. 

1 1  Misther  Robertson,  Sorr — Misther  Hawtharne,  Oi  mane, 
axin'  Ter  Anner 's  pardhin — they  du  be  tellin'  about  the 
camp  thot  yez  du  be  sailin'  up  an'  dhown  the  rivers  an* 
cloimin'  the  hills,  smellin'  out  these  here  holly  threes,  loike, 
thot  grows  the  leaves  they  gathers  tu  make  this  here  jackass 
tay  we  du  be  suppin'  up  thru  our  cane  poipes  same  as  all 
thim  Gowchers  du  be  duin',  same  as  we  all  larn  frum  thim. 
An'  Oi  say  thot  yer  awn  poipe,  Sorr,  us  silver  same  as  ut 
shud  be  far  so  foine  a  ginthlemin  as  yersilf . 

"Now  we  Oirish  uz  all  over  the  wurruld  for  fun  or  be- 
kase  ut's  the  will  av  God;  but,  shure,  wid  Scotchmin  or 
Englishmin  or  Amurricans,  'tis  differunt  entoirely.  Yez 
du  be  all  aloike  wan  way.  Wheeriver  yez  may  be?  ye 're 
theer  tu  make  yer  farchuns.  Oi'll  make  bowld  tu  say, 
Misther  Robertson,  Sorr — Misther  Hawtharne,  Oi  mane, 
Sorr — ye 're  here  in  Candelaria  this  blissid  minnit  tu  make 
yer  farchun.  An'  ye 're  thinkin'  av  makin'  ut  out  a? 
jackass  tay.  Uz  ut  not  thrue,  Yer  Anner?" 

Hawthorne,  amazed  and  interested,  admitted  the  truth 
of  the  perspicacious  Milesian's  conjecture. 

"Now  moind  yez,  Misther  Robertson — Misther  Haw 
tharne,  I  mean,  Sorr,"  the  Irishman  went  on,  "Oi'm  not 
deny  in'  thot  farchuns  moight  be  made  out  av  jackass  tay, 
an'  maybe  yez  11  be  afther  makin'  yer  farchun  thot  way. 


5i8 


EL   SUPREMO 


Theer's  jackass  lay-leaves  galore  agrowin'  ahn  the  threes 
all  up  an '  down  the  camp  f rum  here  tu  Xandare  an '  furder 
narth  iverywheers.  An'  theer 's  lashin's  av  jackass  tay 
dhrunk  iverywheers  in  this  parrt  av  the  wurruld  from  Lima 
to  Chuhut.  Maybe,  af  ut's  the  will  av  God,  yez'll  tache  all 
the  wurruld  tu  be  dhrinkin'  jackass  tay  an'  tu  loike  ut  uz 
will  uz  we  du.  An'  theer  moight  be  tin  farchuns  far  yez 
intil  ut  far  all  Oi  cud  till. 

1 '  But,  Misther  Robertson,  Sorr — Oi  mane,  Misther  Haw- 
tharne,  Sorr — Oi've  cut  the  camp  a  hundhred  leagues  an' 
more  all  far  tu  say  till  yez  thot  the  nacheral  way  far  tu 
make  yer  farchun  in  these  parrts  av  the  wurruld  uz  hoides. 

"Hoides,  Misther  Robertson,  Sorr — Oi  mane,  Misther 
Hawtharne,  Sorr — hoides  uz  the  nacheral  gowld-moines  av 
all  the  camp  hereabouts.  Lit  me  expashiate  wid  yez,  Yer 
Anner.  Catthle,  hereabouts,  uz  called  ganado  f  as  yez  du  be 
knowin'  yersilf,  Sorr,  widout  me  a-tillin'  av  yes.  Now, 
ganado  de  rodeo,  thot's  thame  catthle,  thim  thot's  roundhed 
up  an'  brandhed.  Shure,  since  the  rivolushun,  theer 's  not 
minny  herds  av  tame  catthle  in  the  camp.  'Tuz  all  ganado 
aLzado,  thot's  woilde  catthle.  Av  thim  theer 's  no  ind,  no 
ind  ut  all.  Thousands  an'  tins  av  thousands  av  thim.  An' 
woilde  harses  an '  mares,  twoist  uz  minny  uz  cows  an '  bulls. 
They  roams  the  camp,  they  hoides  in  the  thustles,  an'  in 
the  bogs  roun'  Lake  Ibera.  An'  the  byes,  av  theer 's  anny 
wan  tu  pay  thim,  goes  out  be  muneloight  an'  crawls  in 
amongst  thim  harrt-brakin '  tharny  locus'  threes  an'  sthabs 
an'  throat-cuts  thim  woilst  they  du  be  slapin'  in  the  bushes. 
Or  they  droives  the  harses  an'  mares  intu  corrals  made  av 
sthakes  an'  raw-hoide  cables,  an'  throws  thim  wid  lassos 
or  wid  tolas,  thim  balls  ahn  the  ind  av  ropes  they  du  be 
whirlin '  roun '  theer  hids  an '  throwin '  tu  tangle  thim  roun ' 
theer  hoind  ligs.  An'  they  skhins  thim  theer  ahn  the 
groun '. 

"Now,  Misther  Robertson,  Sorr — Oi  mane  Misther  Haw 
tharne,  Sorr — give  me  the  wurrud  an'  Oi'll  sit  a  thousan' 
an'  more  av  the  byes  tu  shlarterin'  catthle  an'  harses  far 
yez.  Hoides  yez  shall  hov,  av  ut's  hoides  yez'll  be  wantin', 
hoides  be  the  tin  thousan'.  An'  harse  hoides  uz  eight  shil- 
lin'  in  London,  they  du  be  tillin'  me.  An'  the  byes '11  kill 
yez  harses,  all  yez  11  pay  far,  ut  a  medio  a  harse  or  mare ; 
an'  thot's  thruppence  aitch.  Sthakin'  an'  clanin'  the 


HIDES  519 

iioides'll  be  uz  much  more  an'  carrtin'  thim  tu  Corrientes 
or  Goya  the  same ;  an '  thot  's  three  medios  aiteh  hoide  riddy 
tu  load  ahn  shipboard.  Shure,  Misther  Robertson,  Sorr — Oi 
mane,  Misther  Hawtharne,  Sorr — theer's  farchuns  in  harse 
hoides.  An  ganado  hoides  uz  tu  rials  aitch,  thot 's  wan  shil- 
lin ' ;  an '  they  11  fitch  wan  pound  aitch  in  London,  an '  that 's 
twinty  toimes  whut  they  du  be  costin'  yez  heer.  Shure, 
Misther  Hawtharne,  Sorr — Glory  be  tu  God,  Sorr,  Oi 
named  yer  name  roight  ut  lasht,  Sorr — shure,  Yer  Anner, 
theer's  farchuns  tu  be  made  in  hoides,  uz  Oi'm  hopin'  yez '11 
be  thinkin'  yersilf  be  now,  afther  listhenin'  tu  me.  An' 
shure,  now  yez've  listhened  tu  me,  whut  11  yez  be  sayin'?" 

Hawthorne  reflected,  amused  and  not  eager  to  terminate 
the  diverting  interview. 

" Suppose,"  he  said,  "I  should  be  thinking  of  dealing  in- 
hides  and  should  consider  shipping  hides  from  Goya  or 
Corrientes  to  London,  as  you  propose,  of  what  interest 
would  that  be  to  you  ? ' ' 

' '  Ah ! ' '  the  Irish  Gaucho  exclaimed.  ' '  The  camp  is  all  in 
disardher.  Theer's  bin  murtherin'  an'  robbin'  goin'  ahn 
these  foive  years.  The  estancieros  hov  lift  theer  estancias 
an'  flocked  intil  the  towns,  intil  Corrientes  or  Goya  or 
Santa  Fe;  the  herders  hov  taken  tu  sodgerin'  or  thurned 
intil  robbers,  intoirely ;  the  big  tu-wheeled  carrts,  wid  theer 
wheel-sphokes  uz  long  uz  a  tall  man,  the  carrts  they  did  be 
usin '  tu  carrt  hoides  tu  Corrientes  or  Goya  uz  all  schattered 
about  the  camp,  some  bruk  an'  some  rotted  wid  the  rain 
an'  the  sun;  the  estancias  uz  all  burrnt  or  fallin'  tu  paces, 
theer  ruf es  bruk  in ;  the  catthle  an '  harses  uz  all  gone  woild, 
uz  Oi  wuz  a-tillin'  yez,  Sorr ;  divil  an  estancerio'll  sthick  his 
nose  out  av  a  town ;  ivery  man  yez  11  mate  in  the  camp  uz  a 
murtherer  or  worse,  vultures  an'  crows  uz  all  about,  atin' 
whativer  uz  killed  annywheers ;  the  woild  dogs  they  du  be 
callin '  cimarrones  ranges  the  camp  be .  the  hundhred, 
dhroves  av  thim  killin'  an'  atin'  whut  they  kin  ketch;  'tuz 
all  ruin  an '  disolation. ' ' 

"But  at  that  rate,"  Hawthorne  broke  in,  puzzled  and  be 
wildered,  "there  can  be  no  possibility  of  collecting  hides, 
even  of  wild  cattle  or  horses,  or  of  buying  or  selling  them 
or  any  merchandise. ' ' 

"  'Tuz  so  tu-day,  Misther  Hawtharne,  darlin',"  Campbell 
continued  excitedly,  "but  jist  pass  me  the  wurrud,  an' 


520  EL   SUPREMO 

'"twill  not  be  so  in  tin  days.  Oi  kin  du  far  yez  whut  Oi  did 
far  Misther  Robertson,  an'  Oi  wull,  av  yez  pass  me  the 
wurrud.  Sthart  me  aff  an'  Oi'll  pass  the  wurrud  along 
thot  anny  man  thot  intherfeers  wid  yez  uz  intherfeerin' 
wid  Don  Paythro  Campbell.  They  all  knows  me.  Whin 
Pepe  tuk  me  out  av  Don  Angel  Blanco 's  thannery,  Oi  called 
him  Gineral  Artigas,  cap  aff  an'  oyes  aim  the  groun'. 
Shure,  in  a  wake  he  wuz  callin'  me  Don  Paythro  an'  Oi 
callin'  him  Don  Gervasio.  He  sune  found  Oi  cud  foight. 
In  a  month  we  wuz  callin'  aitch  other  Paythro  an'  Jose,  an' 
widin  tu  months  ut  wuz  Paythe  an'  Pepe,  an'  Pepe  an* 
Paythe  ut's  bin  iver  since.  No  man  loves  Pepe  uz  Oi  du  an* 
will  Pepe  knows  ut.  An'  no  man  hez  fawt  far  Pepe  uz  Oi 
hov,  an'  well  Pepe  knows  thot  tu.  An'  no  man  loves  me  uz 
Pepe  does  be  lovin'  me.  An'  all  min  knows  thot,  Misther 
Hawtharne,  Sorr.  Sez  Pepe  tu  me,  sez  he: 

"  'Yez  hov  fawt  loike  tin  divils,  Paythe,'  sez  he,  'an'  now 
thim  Brasileros  an'  Portenos  uz  afther  givin'  us  a  rist/ 
sez  he,  'an'  we  hov  a  breathin'  toime,  far  whoy  shud  yez 
not  du  whut  yez  plaze  in  the  camp?'  sez  he. 

"Pass  me  the  wurrud,  Sorr,  an'  in  tu  wakes  Oi'll  hov 
ivery  picaro  in  the  camp  uz  quoite  uz  a  lamb ;  not  wan  av 
thim '11  dare  sthale,  rob  or  threatin',  lit  alone  murther, 
whoilst  Oi'm  tu  the  fore.  Oi  did  ut  far  Misther  Robertson, 
Fower  hundhred  thousan'  hoides  Oi  gathered  far  him  tu 
Goya  an'  Corrientes.  Oi  arganoised  foive  throops  av  carrts, 
aitch  throop  av  twinty  carrts,  aich  carrt  wid  a  dhroiver- 
dhroivin'  his  six  bullocks  wid  his  long  cane  goad  wid  the 
iron  pint  ahn  the  ind  av  ut  an'  the  iron-pinted  cross-bar 
sthickin'  out  av  the  middle  av  ut,  an'  wid  his  shart  iron- 
pinted  cane  far  the  wheelers ;  aitch  throop  wid  six  bueyeros 
tu  dhroive  the  loose  relay-bullocks,  an'  wid  a  capataz  tu 
oversay  all  the  twinty  carrts  an'  twinty  dhroivers  an  foive 
herders wan'  tu  hilpers  an'  thirty  saddle-harses  an'  three 
hundhred  bullocks  althegither.  Oi  hod  the  big,  wather- 
toight  hoide  carrts  a  rowlin '  over  the  camp,  pacef ul  uz  af  ut 
hod  bin  in  auld  Oireland.  Oi'll  du  the  loike  far  yez, 
Misther  Hawtharne,  Sorr,  av  yez '11  awnly  pass  me  the 
wurrud. ' ' 

"Why,"  Hawthorne  asked,  "are  you  not  still  doing  so 
for  Mr.  Robertson  ? ' ' 
-.     "Shure,"  Campbell  explained,  "Misther  Robertson  gut 


HIDES  521 

so  rich  aff  av  hoides  thot  he  does  de  dalin'  in  more  payin' 
thrade  in  Buenos  Aires  an'  Santiago." 

"But,"  Hawthorne  demurred,  "there  must  be  other 
traders  at  Goya  and  Corrientes  now  Mr.  Robertson  has  gone 
away." 

"Theer's  awnly  Misther  Posthelthwaite,  Sorr,"  Campbell 
declared.  '  *  God  bliss  him  far  a  foine  ginthlemin.  A  f  oine 
ginthlemin  he  uz  an'  ut  wuz  mesilf  thot  bruk  the  hid  av  a 
fule  av  a  picaro  far  miscallin'  him  Senor  Postilion,  he  not 
bein '  able  tu  sphake  Posthlethwaite  dacintly.  But  Misther 
Posthletliwaite  niver  hez  the  cash  Misther  Robertson  hod  in 
hand. 

1  i  An '  theer  's  awnly  thot  little  thaf e  av  the  wurruld  Tuck- 
erman,  him  uz  calls  himsilf  Don  Korkey,  becaze  he  can't 
sphake  dacintly  the  Spanish  far  Jarge,  which  uz  his  Chris- 
thian  name,  he  bein'  christhined  afther  Gineral  Jarge 
Washington.  But  Don  Korkey  uz  no  ginthlemin,  savin' 
yer  prisince,  Misther  Hawtharne,  Sorr.  He 's  a  counthrymin 
av  yer  awn,  but  no  sich  a  man  as  yez  are  yersilf .  Cash  he 
hos  an'  cash  galore,  but  Oi'll  hov  no  dalin's  wid  the  loikes 
av  him,  bad  cess  tu  him. 

"So  Oi 've  cut  the  camp  tu  say  yez,  Misther  Hawtharne, 
dear,  an'  talk  wid  yez." 

"And  suppose,"  Hawthorne  said,  "I'm  not  interested  in 
hides  and  can 't  be  interested  in  hides,  what  then  ? ' ' 

"Thin,"  said  Campbell,  with  a  funny  Irish  face,  "Oi've 
hod  a  gran'  roide  in  the  hot  sun  an'  me  face  burrnt  aff  av 
me,  all  far  no  profit  ut  all,  ut  all.  But  ye '11  niver  till  me, 
Misther  Hawtharne,  darlin ',  thot  yez  aren  't  far  makin '  yer 
farchun,  an'  ut  loyin'  aht  yer  fate." 

Hereupon  they  entered  into  a  long  discussion  lasting 
Until  dinner  and  recommenced  after  the  two-hour  siesta. 

"When  he  finally  was  convinced  that  Hawthorne  was  not 
to  be  enticed  or  wheedled,  Campbell  heaved  a  great  sigh  of 
disappointment  and  resignation.  They  were,  at  the  mo 
ment,  entirely  alone.  The  exile  lowered  his  voice,  however, 
to  a  whisper. 

"Oi've  wan  lasht  wurrud  far  yez,  Misther  Hawtharne, 
Sorr,"  he  said.  "D'yez  moind  whut  we  du  be  sayin'  in 
auld  Oireland,  an '  a  prayste  towld  me  wanst  ut  wuz  out  av 
the  gud  buke:  'The  pitcher  does  be  a-goin'  tu  the  will  an' 
a-comin'  back,  but  ut  gits  bruk  at  lasht'?  'Tuz  so  wid 


522  EL   SUPREMO 

Pepe.  Shure,  he's  niver  bin  beat,  not  wanst.  But  me  an* 
him  uz  not  so  young  uz  we  wuz.  The  toime'll  come  whin 
Pepe  can't  make  huz  foive  an'  twinty  leagues  a  day;  whin 
our  arrums'll  be  sthiff  an'  our  wits '11  be  dull.  Thim  Bra- 
sileros'll  git  us  in  the  ind.  Theer's  woild  catthle  an'  harses 
beyant  countin'  in  the  camp,  an'  jackass-tay  threes  in  the 
mantes  tin  toimes  uz  minny  uz  all  the  catthle  an'  harses; 
but  the  Brasileros  in  Brazil  outcounts  all  av  thim.  The 
more  we  du  be  af ther  killin ',  the  more  come  ahn.  An '  whin 
ut  comes  tu  the  ind,  av  the  Brasileros  ketch  us  they'll  be 
afther  shoo  tin'  us,  an  shmall  blame  tu  thim;  an'  ut'll  be 
all  the  same  av  ut's  the  Portenos  or  the  Montevideanos.  An* 
av  none  av  thim  gits  us  we'll  git  tu  owld  tu  foight,  some 
toime,  annyhow.  So  Oi'm  thinkin'  a  thanner  Oi  began  an* 
a  thanner  Oi  moight  ind.  Oi  du  be  hearin '  thot  owld  Fran- 
cia  uz  niver  contint  wid  the  quality  av  the  leather  they  du 
be  makin'  in  Paraguay.  Oi've  a  hankerin'  afther  Dublin 
far  me  owld  age,  but  thot's  pasht  hopin'  far.  Now,  Oi'm 
thinkin'  a  rale  gud  thanner  wud  be  tu  owld  Francia's 
moind.  An'  so,  av  yez  plaze,  Misther  Hawtharne,  Sorr,  av 
yez  cud  sind  me  a  wurrud  loike :  *  Thanners  wilkim, '  ut  ud 
aise  me  moind,  intoirely. 

"Shure,  yez  11  be  sayin'  Oi'm  clane  luny,  Misther  Haw 
tharne.  Yez '11  be  sayin'  thot  Paraguay's  the  lasht  place 
ahn  airth  far  me,  thot  Oi'm  the  lasht  man  ahn  airth  tu 
think  av  livin'  in  Paraguay,  thot  owld  Francia  ud  shoot 
me  quicker  nor  all  the  Portenos  an '  Montevideanos  an '  Bra 
sileros;  me  thot  sunk  all  huz  ships  an'  tuk  all  the  rist  av 
thim  an'  scatthered  huz  navy  an'  killed  all  huz  min  an' 
chased  thim  home.  Yez '11  be  sayin'  all  thot,  an  thrue  far 
yez. 

''But,  Misther  Hawtharne,  dear,  Oi  fawt  him,  but  Oi 
fawt  him  fair. 

"Shure,  theer's  wheer  he's  different  from  thim  Brasi 
leros.  He'll  niver  be  afther  shootin'  me,  knowin'  Oi  fawt 
him  fair.  An'  he's  not  wastin'  thanners,  not  wid  all  the 
bilts  an'  sthraps  an'  traces  he  needs,  not  wid  all  the  worry 
he  has  wid  thanners.  An'  me  a  thanner.  He's  not(wastin' 
bullets  nor  wastin'  thanners.  Thot  Oi  know." 

It  was  near  midnight  when  he  finally  departed. 


JUANITA  523 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

JUANITA 
(1) 

VANISHING-  noiselessly  down  the  broad  Parana  in 
their  balsas,  the  Payaguas  were  almost  instantly  for 
gotten.  Forgotten  with  them  were  the  horrors  of  ruined 
towns,  hopeless  remnant  populations  and  general  devasta 
tion  in  Missiones.  Once  well  across  the  river  and  in  the 
saddle,  the  zest  of  galloping  on  good  horses  frequently 
changed,  exhilarated  Hawthorne's  naturally  buoyant  spir 
its.  Lopez  also  became  cheerful  and  strenuous,  blandly 
parrying  the  offers  of  hospitality  from  the  curates  of  Trin 
idad  and  Motas;  escaping  without  giving  offence  their 
proffers  of  bull-fights,  sortijas  and  miracle-plays,  and  push* 
ing  briskly  across  the  ford  of  the  Tibicuary  Guazu  through 
Yuty  to  Caazapa. 

No  sooner  were  they  north  of  the  Tibicuary  than  the  al 
teration  in  the  aspect  of  the  country  brought  back  to  Haw 
thorne,  with  a  rush  of  unexpected  emotion,  his  keen  sense  of 
being  uncontrollably  in  love  with  Paraguay.  Manifestly 
the  scenery  was  precisely  such  as  that  about  Caapucu, 
Atira  and  Asuncion,  diversified  with  hills,  slopes  and  valv 
leys.  Every  hill,  wooded  from  base  to  summit  and  tasseled 
along  its  crest  with  stately  rigid  or  gracefully  nodding 
palm-trees,  was  an  ornament  to  the  landscape.  On  the 
long,  gentle  slopes  up  and  down  which  they  rode  they  were 
shadowed  by  noble  trees  twined  with  parasitic  vines  and 
often  festooned  with  brilliant  and  fragrant  orchids.  Be 
neath  and  among  their  mightier  cousins  grew  many  fig- 
trees  in  fruit,  conspicuous  by  their  dark  broad  leaves,  lime- 
trees  aplenty,  and  orange-trees,  everywhere  orange-trees,  all 
bearing  fruit,  all  in  flower  at  the  same  time.  From  branch 
to  branch  squirrels  leapt  in  the  tree-tops,  monkeys  chat 
tered  ;  above  and  about  flew  parrots,  parrakeets,  cockatoos, 
toucans,  and  countless  humming  birds.  The  valleys,  irri 
gated  by  unfailing  brooks  and  rivulets  feeding  the  larger 
streams,  were  everywhere  beautifully  green.  Shrubs  with 
crimson  or  violet  blooms  clustered  on  knoll  after  knoll.  The 


524  EL   SUPREMO 

thickets  were  lively  with  pheasants,  the  meadows  with  par 
tridges  and  quail,  the  marshes  with  snipe  and  water-hens, 
the  ponds  and  lakes  with  wild-fowl,  ducks  and  those  mag 
nificent  hirds,  royal-ducks,  as  large  as  geese  and  gorgeous 
of  plumage. 

With  all  this  wild  life  teeming  undiminished  much  of 
the  leveller  land  below  the  hills  and  above  the  marshes  was 
well  under  cultivation.  Cattle  were  abundant  and  horses 
were  numerous.  Fields  neatly  hedged  with  long  lines  of 
aloe  and  prickly  pear  displayed  heavy  crops  of  maize, 
manioc,  sugar-cane,  yucca,  tobacco,  and  cotton.  Each  with 
its  potrero,  enclosed  by  a  very  high,  thick  and  thorny 
hedge,  white-washed  cottages  were  everywhere  in  view,  neat 
and  homelike,  every  one  with  its  vegetable-gardens,  its  flow 
er-garden,  and  its  row  of  beehives. 

The  land  seemed  above  all  others  he  had  ever  seen  worthy 
to  be  well-governed,  to  be  self-governed,  to  be  free :  Par 
aguay,  more  than  any  part  of  the  earth  he  had  visited,  ap 
peared  to  him  a  country  worth  saving,  worth  risking 
anything  for,  even  life.  His  mood  rose  to  an  exaltation 
of  self-effacement,  devotion  and  resolve.  His  thoughts 
flew  before  him  towards  Asuncion,  and  all  its  woes,  fears 
and  hopes,  as  if  the  very  soul  of  him  had  left  his  body 
and  soared  on  a  tempest  of  lofty  aims  and  high  purposes. 
All  the  resolutions  with  which  he  had  been  animated 
upon  his  arrival  in  Paraguay  surged  in  him  with  redoubled 
power. 

Approaching  the  capital  in  this  high-strung  state  of 
mind,  he  was  cantering  some  horse-lengths  ahead  of  Lopez 
and  his  escort,  along  one  of  those  deep-cut  lanes,  over 
arched  by  interwoven  branches,  which  had  so  delighted  him! 
when  he  first  saw  them  and  which  he  found  now  as  charm 
ing  as  at  first  acquaintance.  They  were  yet  a  league  or 
more  from  the  city  and  not  far  from  Cerro  de  Tacumbu, 
when,  at  a  sharp  bend  in  the  road,  Hawthorne  came  face 
to  face  with  Francia,  riding  at  a  slow  walk  on  a  blown  and 
lathered  horse.  He  had  indulged  in  one  of  his  beloved  gal 
lops  after  the  daily  review,  and  was  near  the  extremity  of 
the  long  loop  he  meant  to  make  out  into  the  country  in 
returning  home. 

Francia  stared,  more  petrified  than  Hawthorne,  who 
reined  in  his  mount.  Reining  his  in  likewise,  the  Dictator 


JUANITA  525 

at  him  from  the  distance  of  but  a  few  yards.  His 
face  was  hard  and  stern. 

"Sefior  Don  Guillermo,"  he  queried,  with  no  previous 
formality  of  greeting,  "by  what  route  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Eio  Blanco  have  you  reached  this  locality?" 

"Up  the  Rio  Blanco,  Excelentisimo  Senor,"  Hawthorne 
replied,  "down  the  Ivinheyma,  down  the  Parana,  through 
Guayra,  on  down  the  Parana  to  Candelaria,  and  thence  here 
on  horseback  through  Ytape. ' ' 

Francia's  face  relaxed. 

"You  have  never  told  me  a  lie,"  he  said,  "but  this  passes 
belief.  Your  exploits  must  have  been  stupendous,  indeed. 
You  must  be  more  than  weary.  Rest  well  to-night.  Sup 
with  me  to-morrow  night,  and  tell  your  tale  at  complete 
leisure.  I  shall  not  wear  you  out  by  yielding  to  my  in 
clination  to  turn  back  with  you  and  ply  you  with  ques 
tions.  ' ' 

He  spurred  his  tired  horse  and  passed  on,  his  lancers  be 
hind  him. 

When  the  last  lancer  was  out  of  sight  Lopez  ranged  his 
mount  alongside  of  Hawthorne 's  and  said : 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,  now  that  El  Supremo  has  him 
self  seen  you  returned  to  Asuncion  alive  and  well,  my  re 
sponsibility  is  at  an  end." 

"Has  it  been  a  heavy  responsibility,  Don  Benigno?" 
Hawthorne  asked  quizzically. 

"At  times,"  Lopez  replied  gravely.  "You  are  a  won 
derful  traveller,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  and  endure  hard 
ships  amazingly.  Yet,  had  I  allowed  you  to  drive  yourself 
unremittingly  as  you  desired,  you  would  now  assuredly 
be  buried  somewhere  along  our  track." 

Hawthorne  smiled. 

"I  thank  you  most  gratefully  for  your  care,"  he  saidf 
with  a  tone  of  sincerity. 

"May  I  be  permitted  one  last  injunction?"  Lopez  que 
ried. 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  assured  him. 

"Then  let  me  say,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo,"  Lopez  con 
tinued,  "that  you  will  never  be  sorry  if  you  take  my  advice 
to  do  nothing  to-night  except  take  a  good  bath,  eat  a  good 
supper  and  go  early  to  bed.  Undoubtedly  you  will  find 
letters  &nd  ether  matters  tempting  you  to  excite  yourself 


526  EL   SUPREMO 

and  to  stay  up  late.  Put  them  resolutely  aside  until  to 
morrow.  You  need  a  rest  almost  as  much  as  at  Cande- 
laria." 

They  chatted  easily  until  the  Mayorga  mansion  was 
reached.  There,  Tolomeo  dutifully  holding  his  stirrup, 
Hawthorne  dismounted.  As  his  foot  touched  the  pavement, 
a  joyful  bark  sounded  from  the  patio,  and  the  next  moment 
he  realised,  with  a  flood  of  unanticipated  sensations,  what 
it  meant  to  have  a  Malvinas  pointer  greet  his  master  after 
months  of  absence. 

Scarcely  less  affectionate  were  the  greetings  of  the  house 
hold.  Supper  was  a  long  meal,  for  they  lingered  over  ques 
tions  on  both  sides,  and  the  evening  passed  in  leisurely  nar 
ratives  to  an  eager  audience,  alternating  with  bombard 
ments  of  local  news  and  gossip.  Hawthorne  went  to  bed 
soothed,  contented  and  hopeful. 

(2) 

Next  morning  Hawthorne  woke  refreshed  and  alert.  His 
first  thought  was  to  go  to  the  prison  at  once  and  visit  Ce 
cilia.  But  immediately  after  breakfast  his  mind  was  tem 
porarily  diverted  from  her.  For,  among  the  letters  and 
packets  which  Don  Vicente,  of  the  same  opinion  as  Lopez, 
had  carefully  kept  out  of  sight  the  night  before,  he  found 
a  long  letter  from  Dona  Juanita  Bianquet  which  mightily 
roused  his  indignation  and  sympathies.  He  was  much  per 
turbed  the  moment  he  saw  from  where  it  was  dated,  and 
more  by  its  contents.  It  ran : 

"CURUGUATAY,  April  5th,  1817. 
"DEAR  FRIEND: 

1 '  I  am  praying  every  morning  and  evening  that  you  may 
come  safe  through  the  countless  dangers  which  must  con 
stantly  beset  you.  If  you  reach  Asuncion  in  safety,  as  I 
trust  you  may,  you  will  read  this  letter,  and  I  grieve  that 
I  cannot  make  it  pleasanter. 

''I  know  you  will  sympathise,  and  I  want  you  to  learn 
of  our  misfortunes  direct  from  me  and  not  by  hearsay.  You 
must  not  feel  that  I  have  neglected  you. 

"The  second  evening  after  you  left  Asuncion,  on  the 
seventh  of  December,  a  beautiful  moonlight  evening,  wff 


JUANITA  527 

had  had  Don  Marcos  Barbeito  and  Don  Avelino  Mendez  to 
supper  and  were  all  sitting  on  the  patio,  in  high  glee  over 
good  impromptus  from  Don  Avelino  and  bad  puns  from 
Don  Marcos,  when  Don  Ponciano  Velaustegui  stalked  gloom 
ily  in  and  beckoned  Manuel  to  follow  him. 

"We  were  all  in  fear  and  trembling  and  our  terrible  ap 
prehensions  were  soon  turned  to  a  worse  certainty. 

' '  For  when  Manuel  returned,  pale  and  agitated,  he  could 
hardly  choke  out  the  dreadful  news  that  he  had  been  ban 
ished  from  Asuncion  to  Curuguatay.  This  appalling  dis 
aster  crushed  us  all  to  the  earth  but  I  endeavoured  to  cheer 
Manuel  as  much  as  I  could. 

' 'The  next  day  our  situation  was  really  frightful.  No 
one  would  come  near  us;  not  only  no  one  dared  visit  us, 
but  pedestrians,  even  riders,  dreaded  passing  our  house  and 
made  a  circuit  to  avoid  it.  Manuel  could  find  no  one  to  act 
as  his  agent,  collect  debts  due  him  and  take  charge  of  his. 
property.  His  entrance  perturbed  every  one  he  called  upon 
as  if  he  had  small-pox.  They  were  so  distressed  and  uneasy 
that  their  curtness  and  expressions  of  alarm  were  not 
needed  to  drive  him  away.  He  could  not  find  any  one  to 
charter  him  a  vessel  to  carry  us  all  to  Quarepoti,  for  of 
course  I  would  not  hear  of  separating  myself  and  the  chil 
dren  from  him,  as  he  proposed.  He  spent  the  entire  morn 
ing  in  going  from  one  place  to  another,  searching  in  vain 
for  some  one  to  help  him.  He  returned  home  about  noon 
so  frightfully  overcome  that  I  feared  for  his  life  and  rea-1 
son.  I  soothed  him  as  far  as  it  was  in  my  power,  and  we 
tried  for  the  children's  sake  to  make  a  show  of  eating  our 
dinner. 

*  *  While  we  were  at  dinner  Don  Cristobal  de  Maria  came 
in  as  urbanely  as  if  we  had  been  under  no  ban.  Manuel 
had  never  thought  of  approaching  him,  as  he  had  already 
fallen  under  the  Dictator's  displeasure.  Now  Don  Cristo 
bal  came  of  his  own  accord,  sat  down  to  dinner  with  us, 
cheered  us  with  jokes,  and,  when  the  children  had  been 
sent  off  to  their  siesta,  made  an  unasked  offer  to  take  charge 
of  all  our  affairs.  He  said  he  knew  the  inside  of  the  prison 
as  well  as  anybody,  and  had  no  dread  of  it.  He  then  had 
Manuel  give  him  a  list  of  his  creditors  and  debtors,  found 
out  what  papers  must  be  made  out  and  executed,  and  went 
off,  saying  he  would  have  one  of  his  own  ships  chartered 


528  EL   SUPREMO 

for  us.  His  last  remark  before  lie  left  us  was  that,  as  he 
was  one  of  your  proteges,  he  conjectured  that  no  difficul 
ties  would  be  put  in  his  way  and  had  no  fear  whatever  of 
incurring  any  further  manifestations  of  ill-will  from  the 
authorities. 

"Next  day  he  returned  with  a  notary,  all  the  necessary 
papers  were  prepared,  signed,  sealed  and  witnessed,  and 
that  very  afternoon  the  petition  for  the  chartering  of  the 
San  Jose  was  countersigned  by  the  Dictator  himself.  The 
next  morning  the  lading  began.  What  with  delays  from 
rains  and  the  dilatoriness  of  some  of  those  who  owed  Man 
uel  the  largest  sums,  ten  days  passed  before  our  possessions 
and  what  goods  Manuel  could  take  to  Curuguatay  were 
loaded  and  the  rest  of  his  property  transferred  to  Don 
Cristobal 's  warehouses. 

"After  no  worse  trouble  on  the  river  than  incessant  dis 
comfort  because  of  the  pertinacious  myriads  of  mosquitoes, 
we  reached  Quarepoti  in  safety,  late  in  the  afternoon  of 
Christmas  Eve. 

* '  What  a  wretched  Christmas  we  passed  and  what  a  con 
trast  to  the  merry  day  we  had  anticipated  when  you  left, 
not  three  weeks  before ! 

"At  Quarepoti  our  real  miseries  began,  and  I  scarcely 
have  the  courage  to  set  them  down. 

"We  could  find  no  contractor  with  a  train  of  bullock- 
carts  capable  of  transporting  us  and  our  possessions,  and  so 
were  delayed  amid  the  squalor  of  Quarepoti  and  the  un 
healthy  exhalations  of  the  pools  and  fens,  all  green  scum 
and  miasmatic  vapours,  that  surround  the  dozen  wretched 
mud  huts  collectively  dignified  with  the  title  of  'Villa,' 
where  no  expenditure  of  money  could  extract  even  the  nec 
essaries  of  life  from  its  poverty  and  idleness.  Every  nox 
ious  insect  of  earth  and  air  tormented  us,  and  my  babies 
visibly  drooped  in  that  deadly  atmosphere. 

"On  New  Year's  Eve  our  invaluable  Cosine,  who  had 
been  cook,  nurse,  valet  and  general  dependence  to  us  since 
I  reached  Asuncion,  and  whom  the  children  loved  so,  was 
drowned  while  bathing,  or  was  carried  off  by  a  cayman. 
We  grieved  for  that  faithful  negro  as  poignantly  as  if  he 
had  been  a  brother. 

' '  When  the  conductor  at  length  arrived  with  his  wagons 
we  loaded  and  sent  off  that  same  day  all  save  one,  which 


JUANITA  529 

we  detained  till  the  following  morning  for  our  travelling 
carriage.  In  it  we  set  out  early  on  January  25th.  We 
expected  to  overtake  the  heavier  carts  before  dusk.  But 
the  swampy  country  so  delayed  us  that  by  an  hour  before 
sunset  we  had  not  come  in  sight  of  them  and  were  con 
fronted  by  a  forest  so  thick  that  it  was  positively  dark  in 
side  it.  The  road  became  so  bad  that  our  cart  collapsed, 
even  completely  broke  to  pieces. 

'  *  While  Manuel  and  Ramon  were  examining  it,  we  heard 
a  jaguar  squall  at  no  great  distance.  At  once  we  aban 
doned  the  cart  and  started  on  foot;  Manuel  and  Ramon 
each  carrying  one  of  the  girls,  and  the  peon  both  the  little 
boys.  We  trudged  more  than  a  league  before  we  caught 
sight  of  the  hovel  for  which  we  were  searching,  and  I  hailed 
it  as  delightedly  as  if  it  had  been  a  palace.  Our  beds  were 
rickety  hide  stretchers,  without  any  mattress  whatever  and 
very  foul,  every  sort  of  loathsome  and  venomous  insect  tor 
tured  us,  but  there  was  some  sort  of  wall  and  big  bright 
fires  between  our  children  and  the  snarling  jaguars. 

"At  dawn  Manuel  rode  back  to  the  broken  cart.  As  he 
returned  at  noon,  when  in  sight  of  the  hut  and  almost  with 
in  speaking  distance,  his  horse  shied,  reared,  plunged  and 
bolted;  bucking  and  whirling  round  as  it  dashed  off.  It 
fell,  Manuel  under  it  and  his  right  leg  broken  in  two 
places. 

' '  Manuel  had  not  fainted  and  was  able  to  direct  me  and 
Ramon  in  straightening  the  broken  leg  and  lifting  him  upon 
a  stretcher.  At  the  cottage,  as  there  was  no  one  who  had 
any  idea  of  what  should  be  done,  I  tried  to  set  the  bones  my 
self,  almost  fainting  when  Manuel's  groans  ended  in  a  ter 
rible  scream.  But  he  mastered  himself  and  told  me  to  go 
on,  grinding  his  teeth  and  gripping  the  cot-frame  with  his 
fingers,  the  sweat  rolling  from  his  forehead.  I  bandaged 
the  leg  and  seemed  to  have  set  the  bones  properly  and  he 
himself  was  convinced  I  had  put  them  exactly  right.  I 
was  in  doubt,  and  sent  off  Ramon  on  our  best  horse  with  a 
letter  to  Doctor  Parlett.  Ramon  reached  Asuncion  in  three 
days  and  was  back  in  three  more  with  a  long  letter  in  Don 
Jenofonte's  handwriting,  dictated  by  Don  Tomas,  com 
mending  all  I  had  done  and  giving  minute  directions  for 
every  possible  eventuality  and  first  of  all  for  making  a 
strong  tight  splint. 


530  EL   SUPREMO 

"  Within  two  days  it  was  plain  that  Manuel  was  improv 
ing.  But  we  were  detained  two  whole  months  at  Tacurubi, 
for  that  was  the  name  of  the  horrible  place,  in  a  one-room 
hut,  so  small  that  our  cots  jostled  each  other,  so  low-roofed 
that  Eamon  had  to  stoop  in  it.  Manuel  suffered  fright 
fully  but  was  very  stoical  and  patient. 

"By  March  20th  he  declared  he  could  travel,  as  Ramon 
could  help  him  on  and  off  his  horse.  We  started  March 
22nd,  and  in  three  days  reached  San  Estanislao,  a  Tape 
Indian  reduction,  the  administrator  of  which  was  kind  to 
us.  On  March  28th,  we  resumed  our  journey  and  met  with 
roads  worse  than  anything  we  could  have  conceived  of. 
The  neighbourhood  of  Curuguatay  is  all  one  swamp.  The 
'roads'  are  tracks  through  the  woods — long,  narrow  open 
ings  where  the  marsh-muck  of  the  forest  has  been  churned 
into  bogs,  holes  softer  and  deeper  than  the  sloughs  of  the 
morasses  on  either  side.  Our  carts  broke  their  axles  over 
fallen  trees,  disappeared  into  pantanos  of  quaking  mud  and 
we  made  less  than  two  leagues  in  three  days.  As  we  were 
one  mass  of  sunburn  and  prickly  heat,  our  faces  bloated  by 
insect  bites  and  all  of  us  so  exhausted  by  the  fury  of  the 
March  sun  that  none  of  us  could  keep  food  on  our  stomachs, 
it  was  plain  we  would  never,  at  that  rate,  reach  Curuguatay 
alive.  Manuel  sent  Kamon  back  to  San  Estanislao  for 
mules,  and  he  succeeded  in  procuring  four.  On  these,  each 
of  us  with  a  child  before  us  on  the  saddle-bow — Manuel,  I, 
Eamon,  and  a  peon — set  off  on  March  31st  and  reached  here 
in  three  days,  the  carts  following  as  best  they  could.  The 
children  survived  the  fierce  March  sun  and  the  terrible 
jolting,  and  are  already,  after  only  two  days,  rapidly  re 
covering,  as  the  good  curate  here,  Pai  Yeguaca,  had  a  sup 
ply  of  mosquito-netting  to  spare  and  a  girl  told  us  just  what 
simple  remedies  are  adapted  to  children  in  this  region.  I 
am  visibly  revived.  Manuel  is  also  mending,  though  he 
cannot  yet  put  his  foot  to  the  ground  and  goes  about  on 
crutches,  which  Padre  Yeguaca  has  had  made  to  replace  the 
rude  attempts  at  crutches  Ramon  had  hacked  and  whittled 
out  for  him. 

1 '  He  is  most  anxious  about  one  matter.  In  giving  the  list 
of  his  creditors  to  Don  Cristobal,  he  entirely  forgot  one,  and 
that  one  of  his  heaviest  creditors,  as  well  as  one  of  our  best 
friends.  He  owes  him  thirty  English  pounds  in  gold,  which 


JUANITA  531 

he  reckoned  at  nine  doubloons,  or  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
pesos  in  silver,  but  he  authorises  Don  Cristobal  to  settle  the 
debt  at  Don  Juan 's  own  reckoning. 

"Now  please  don't  laugh  at  me  because  I  cannot  spell 
our  good  friend 's  name  right.  English  names  are  as  impos 
sible  to  spell  as  they  are  to  pronounce.  I  mean  Don  Juan 
Postelfe  of  Corrientes. 

" There,  you'll  know  what  that  means,  but  don't  laugh. 

"Manuel  wrote  Don  Cristobal,  but  he  insists  that  I  write 
you  also  for  fear  his  letter  to  Don  Cristobal  may  have  been 
lost ;  for  he  would  not  have  Don  Juan  cheated  of  his  dues 
nor  have  him  think  ill  of  us. 

' i  My  pretty  Luisa,  Manuelita  and  both  the  little  boys  beg 
their  kind  remembrances  to  you.  Our  regards  to  all  our 
friends  in  Asuncion,  and  also  down  the  river. 

"Your  ever  grateful  friend, 

"  JUANITA  KOQUEMAUEE  DE  BIANQUET." 


(3) 

Although  a  quick  thinker,  Hawthorne  was  by  nature  de 
liberate  rather  than  impulsive.  When  he  did  surrender  to 
an  impulse,  he  hurled  himself  utterly  where  it  led  him. 
The  moment  he  had  read  Dona  Juanita's  letter  he  made  all 
possible  haste  in  reaching  the  Palacio. 

There  he  found  striking  changes. 

A  neat,  clean,  soldierly  sentry  paced  before  the  entrance. 
Right  and  left  of  the  doorway  a  window  had  been  pierced 
in  the  Jesuits '  thick  wall,  and  grilled  with  strong  iron- work. 
Under  the  archway  of  the  entrance  a  sentinel,  trim  and 
soldierly  as  the  sentry  without,  stood  erect  and  alert.  On 
either  side  of  the  passage  was  a  new  small  window  and  a 
new  door.  Through  those  on  his  right  Hawthorne,  as  the 
sentinel  halted  him,  saw  lounging  a  half  a  dozen  soldiers, 
trig  and  seemly  as  the  sentry,  and  with  them  Zorilla ;  while, 
on  his  left,  he  perceived  that  the  room  was  fitted  with  a  tall 
l}ufete  and  a  broad  writing-table  set  against  the  small  win 
dow.  Across  this  he  saw  Beltran  smiling  at  him. 

Beltran  at  once  jumped  to  his  feet  and  came  out  into  the 
passage-way.  After  effusive  greetings  and  compliments 
and  solicitous  enquiries,  he  said : 


532  EL   SUPREMO 

"You  pass,  of  course,  unannounced,"  and  returned  to  his 
office. 

Hawthorne  found  Francia  at  his  table,  wearing  his  gen 
eral's  uniform,  which  became  him  nearly  as  well  as  the 
more  gorgeous  colonel's  uniform  became  Beltran. 

"You  surprise  me,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said.  "I  told 
you  to  delay  your  report  until  after  we  had  dined  together. 
Is  Paraguay  corrupting  you  into  the  native  habit  of  pre 
suming  to  attempt  improvements  upon  my  commands  in 
stead  of  obeying  me  ? ' ' 

' '  By  no  means,  Most  Excellent  Sir, ' '  Hawthorne  replied. 
' '  My  business  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  report  and  appears 
to  me  to  be  urgent. ' ' 

1 1  State  it ! "  the  Dictator  snapped.  « '  But  don 't  say  '  Most 
Excellent  Sir'  again." 

1 '  I  trust, ' '  Hawthorne  said, ' '  that  I  do  not  presume.  But 
I  assume  that  you  will  be  pleased  with  my  report." 

1  *  Assume  it, ' '  Francia  granted.  ' '  I  assume  as  much  my* 
self." 

"Upon  which  assumption,"  Hawthorne  continued,  "1 
beg  leave  to  ask  a  favour  in  advance. ' ' 

"You  do  not  need  any  such  assumption,"  Francia  de 
clared,  his  grim  face  relaxing  into  a  smile.  1 1 1  am  not  un 
grateful.  I  have  not  forgotten  your  saving  my  life  two  and 
a  half  times  by  the  least  count.  State  the  favour  you  ask." 

Hawthorne  then  made  an  eloquent  plea  for  the  rescinding 
of  the  decree  of  banishment  against  Don  Manuel  Bianquet. 
He  cleverly  gave  the  gist  of  Dona  Juanita's  letter  and  ar 
gued  that  Don  Manuel  had  been  punished  sufficiently.  He 
dexterously  mingled  considerations  of  expediency  with  his 
request  for  the  termination  of  the  Bianquets'  exile  as  a 
favour  to  himself.  Francia  listened  without  any  sign  of 
irritation. 

"Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "I  have  heard  you  to  the  end 
of  your  discourse  without  interruption.  Now,  pray  listen 
similarly  to  me. ' ' 

His  eyes  left  Hawthorne 's  face  and  he  stared  across  the 
court,  reflectively.  His  face  hardened  into  his  grimmest 
frown. 

"Don  Guillermo,"  he  began  again,  "I  consider  I  was 
indulgent,  even  too  indulgent,  towards  Don  Manuel.  My 
self  partly  of  French  ancestry,  I  was  perhaps  too  well  dis-* 


JUANITA  533 

posed  towards  the  son  of  a  French  father  and  a  Creole 
mother,  perhaps  to  some  degree  because  I  deprecate  the 
local  prejudice  against  any  immigrants  not  of  pure  Spanish 
descent. 

"At  any  rate,  I  extended  to  Don  Manuel  every  facility 
for  establishing  himself  at  Asuncion  and  he  prospered  un 
der  my  favour.  That  favour  he  shamefully  abused.  Im 
ports  which  cost  him,  say,  a  hundred  pesos  in  Europe,  he 
readily  sold  here  for  six  hundred  to  two  thousand  pesos. 
Not  contented  with  a  gross  profit  of  six  hundred  to  two 
thousand  per  cent.,  surely  enough  to  recoup  him  for  any 
possible  expenses  of  transportation,  for  any  conceivable 
depreciation  or  outright  losses,  he  must  needs  descend  to  a 
calculated  system  of  petty  misrepresentations  of  the  quality 
of  his  goods  and  to  false  weights  and  measures. 

"I  heard  of  this  and  at  first  thought  him  traduced.  I 
continued  to  hear  the  like  reports  of  him  from  so  many 
quarters  that  I  could  not  but  believe  they  had  more  than  a 
little  foundation.  I  made  efforts  to  ascertain  the  truth,  and 
was  fully  convinced  of  his  chicanery.  But  I  could  obtain 
no  specific  evidence.  So  I  let  him  alone.  But  I  informed 
him  of  the  reports  against  him  and  counselled  him  so  to 
conduct  himself  as  to  be  absolutely  above  suspicion.  He 
continued  his  dishonest  practices.  I  warned  him  several 
times,  once  in  your  hearing.  He  paid  no  heed.  Finally,  a 
day  or  two  after  you  left  Asuncion,  some  impulse  prompted 
me  to  go  to  my  window  just  after  finishing  my  dinner.  I 
found  there,  patiently  waiting  and  expecting  to  wait  hours 
longer,  a  poor  Guarani  woman.  She  told  me  her  story,  sob 
bing.  She  had  saved  all  her  earnings  for  two  years  to  buy 
some  English  cotton  stuff.  When  she  had  at  last  the  neces 
sary  sum  she  had  gone  to  Don  Manuel 's  warehouse  and  put 
her  all  into  a  bolt  of  'guaranteed'  English  muslin.  It  was 
marked  'Twenty-five  yards,  full  length.'  Don  Manuel  him 
self  interpreted  the  marks  for  her  and  affirmed  their  trust 
worthiness. 

"When  she  measured  the  muslin,  it  came  to  but  nineteen 
yards.  I  myself  verified  her  statements,  for  she  brought 
with  her  the  cotton  and  its  original  wrappings. 

"I  was  so  infuriated  that  I  at  once  ordered  the  villain 
into  exile  at  Curuguatay,  in  lieu  of  shooting  him  without 
mercy.  I  consider  I  was  very  indulgent. ' ' 


534  EL   SUPREMO 

He  paused,  and  Hawthorne,  scanning  his  face,  recog* 
nised  his  most  inexorable  mood.  He  rose,  took  his  leave, 
and  went  out  at  once. 

He  walked  straight  to  the  Velarde  mansion  and,  after 
greetings  and  compliments  exchanged  with  Don  Toribio, 
who  now  met  him  for  the  first  time,  he  asked  to  see  Ven 
tura.  Much  astonished,  but  urbanely  appearing  to  regard 
this  amazing  request  as  natural  from  a  foreigner,  Don  To- 
ribio  sent  for  his  daughter.  She  welcomed  Hawthorne  as 
if  he  had  been  almost  a  cousin.  As  soon  as  possible  he  told 
her  the  reason  of  his  coming  and  read  her  Dona  Juanita'a 
letter. 

Ventura  was  as  brisk  and  businesslike  as  any  New  Eng- 
lander. 

"Don  Guillermo,"  she  said,  "you  may  leave  the  whole 
matter  to  me  and  go  on  to  the  prison,  where  you  wanted  to 
go.  It  is  a  great  proof  of  your  friendship  for  Juanita  that 
you  went  to  the  Palacio  and  came  here  before  visiting  Dona 
Cecilia. " 

(4) 

At  the  Palacio,  Ventura,  passed  without  question  by  the 
guard,  gave  Beltran  a  curt  nod,  left  Fruela  under  the  colon 
nade,  and  marched  straight  towards  the  Dictator.  He  rose 
to  greet  her.  No  sooner  was  she  seated  than  he  said : 

' '  I  have  been  neglectful.  I  meant  to  tell  you  to  send  for 
me  if  you  wanted  me,  instead  of  coming  here  again." 

"I  thought  of  that,"  said  Ventura  easily,  "and  I  knew 
you  would  come.  But  I  reflected  that  it  would  cause,  if 
anything,  more  gossip  than  my  coming  here.  Of  course,  it 
is  universally  known  we  have  our  chess-bout  every  Sunday, 
and  there  is  talk  enough  over  that,  Heaven  knows.  But  for 
you  to  visit  me,  in  addition  to  your  regular  weekly  visits, 
would  set  all  Asuncion  gossiping  afresh.  As  for  my  com 
ing  to  you,  surely  I  have  not  lost  every  citizen's  right  of 
petition  and  free  access  to  the  Dictator  merely  because  I 
am  pledged,  under  conditions,  to  become  his  wife?" 

Francia  smiled  and  bowed  low. 

Ventura  came  to  the  point  at  once. 

1 1 1  have  come, ' '  she  said, ' '  to  renew  my  suit  for  the  abro 
gation  of  your  decree  of  banishment  against  Don  Manuel 
Bianquet. ' ' 


JUANITA  535 

"I  thought,"  said  Francia,  looking  startled,  "that  we 
had  settled  that  matter  between  us  finally. ' ' 

"So  did  I,"  rejoined  Ventura.  "But  we  settled  it  on  a 
false  foundation  and  wrongly.  It  was  my  fault.  I  ac 
cepted  your  statements  about  Don  Manuel's  guilt  as  you 
made  them,  totally  forgetting  your  tendency  to  believe  any 
thing  against  any  one  to  whom  you  take  a  dislike  and  your 
habit  of  flying  into  an  Olympian  rage  over  some  trifle.  You 
spoke  of  proofs  accumulated  and  conclusive.  You  never 
had  a  shadow  of  real  evidence  against  Don  Manuel,  and  you 
know  it :  only  lies  of  Orrego  or  Pai  Mbatu  or  of  some  others 
of  your  paid  spies. 

' '  Oh,  you  need  not  look  so  amazed !  Everybody  in  Asun 
cion  knows  who  your  chief  spies  are.  And  they  know  each 
other,  of  course.  You  probably  have  others  unsuspected  by 
the  populace  and  unknown  to  your  worst  satellites,  and  you 
are  right  in  general  in  assuming  that  a  lie  or  blunder  of 
one  or  two  will  quickly  be  checked  by  the  reports  of  the 
rest.  But  mostly  they  confer  with  each  other  and  make 
their  slanders  tally  pretty  accurately.  They  know  whom 
you  hate,  and  forge  their  tales  to  suit  your  fancy.  Such 
detractions  confirmed  your  detestation  of  poor  Don  Man 
uel.  They  fooled  you  with  manufactured  libels. 

' '  You  spoke  of  infamous  frauds ;  you  gave  me  the  idea  of 
some  gigantic  imposition.  I  find  that  you  exiled  the  poor 
man  on  the  mere  word  of  a  Guarani  woman.  Now  I  know 
that  your  dear  Guaranies  are  generally  truthful,  but  there 
are  liars  among  them,  not  a  few.  She  may  have  lied  out 
and  out.  More  probably  she  misunderstood  what  she  heard. 
As  likely  as  not  he  told  her  the  cloth  was  only  nineteen 
yards  and  explained  that  the  marks  were  not  reliable.  Don 
Manuel  understands  Guarani  wonderfully  well  for  a  for 
eigner  not  yet  three  years  in  Paraguay,  and  he  speaks  it 
even  volubly,  for  his  stock  of  words  is  positively  stupen 
dous.  But  he  is  entirely  too  glib  and  self-confident  with  it, 
for  his  pronunciation  is  execrable  and  his  accent  abom 
inable.  He  always  knows  what  he  is  saying,  but  hardly  any 
one  else  can  conjecture  the  purport  of  his  discourse.  It  is 
ten  to  one  that  he  told  the  precise  truth  about  that  wretched 
bolt  of  cloth  and  the  woman  exactly  inverted  his  mean 
ing. 

* '  But,  granted  that  he  lied,  that  she  represented  his  words 


536  EL   SUPREMO 

accurately,  what  was  the  utmost  penalty  he  deserved?  It 
was  the  price  of  six  yards  of  English  muslin.  You  have 
ruined  his  trade  here,  lamed  him  for  life,  and  subjected 
him  and  his  wife  and  children  to  unconscionable  horrors. 
You  have  committed  a  hideous  injustice  for  which  not  even 
a  recall  to  Asuncion  and  a  cash  payment  of  the  value  of 
his  whole  stock  of  goods  at  the  time  of  his  exile  would 
atone.  You  cannot  compensate  for  what  you  have  done 
amiss.  At  least,  you  can  terminate  the  wrong,  you  can 
free  your  victims  from  exile,  and  at  once.  I  ask  you  to  do 
that/' 

Francia  gazed  at  her  fixedly,  with  a  mild  air  of  open- 
mindedness. 

'  *  You  speak  very  convincingly,  Senorita, ' '  he  said.  ' '  But 
why  do  you  waste  breath  and  time  in  pleading  when  you 
know  perfectly  well  that  I  would  grant  your  merest  re 
quest  unsupported  by  any  logic?" 

Ventura  bridled. 

"I  am  not  making  this  a  personal  favour  to  me,"  she 
said,  "but  an  act  of  justice.  I  scorn  cajolery,  and  regard  a 
right  action  won  by  favouritism  as  fully  as  inequitable  as 
a  wrong.  I  am  trying  to  lead  you  to  act  for  the  good  of 
yourself  and  of  all  Paraguay  as  well  as  in  reparation  to 
wards  Don  Manuel.  If  my  plea  cannot  be  supported  by 
cogent  arguments,  it  should  be  rejected.  I  put  it  forward 
on  the  ground  of  broad  public  policy. ' ' 

Francia  smiled. 

"Argument  or  no  argument,"  he  said,  "you  know  I 
cannot  refuse  you  if  you  really  insist.  But  since  you  put 
your  plea  on  the  ground  of  broad  public  policy  let  us  dis 
cuss  it  on  that  basis. 

"My  power  comes  not  so  much  from  my  capacity  for  af 
fairs  as  from  my  personal  prestige.  That  prestige  rests 
almost  entirely  upon  my  Guaranies'  conception  of  me  as  a 
being  incapable  of  error,  instantaneous  in  decision,  swift  in 
action,  inexorable  as  the  stars.  It  is  not  what  I  am  but 
what  I  am  thought  that  counts.  Some  Guaranies  may  be 
liars,  as  you  claim ;  but,  certainly,  all  are  gossips.  If  I  re 
call  Don  Manuel  to  Asuncion,  the  tale  will  run  like  wild 
fire  that  El  Supremo  has  changed  his  mind.  They  will 
begin  to  doubt  whether  my  mind  is  what  they  have  thought, 
whether  I  am  such  as  they  have  believed.  Their  faith  in 


JUANITA  537 


me  may  vanish,  and  my  power  with  it.    I  dare  not  run 
risk." 

"I  can  see  that  perfectly,"  Ventura  admitted  thought 
fully.  "I  think  you  greatly  exaggerate  the  probability; 
but  a  probability  there  is.  I  see  I  must  give  up  my  hopes 
of  having  Juanita  here  with  me  again.  But  at  least  you 
can  release  the  Bianquets  and  permit  them  to  sail  down  the 
river  to  Corrientes. 

"Oh,  I  know  what  you  are  going  to  say,  but  there  is 
nothing  in  it.  If  Don  Manuel  really  knew  all  your  secrets 
and  told  them  all  to  Perrichon,  Artigas,  Candioti  and  Al- 
vear,  or  to  all  Buenos  Aires,  it  could  not  weaken  you  a 
particle;  not  if  he  had  plans  of  every  inch  of  Asuncion 
and  Neembucu,  lists  of  all  disaffected  persons,  an  exact  de 
scription  of  your  troops,  barracks,  and  arsenals  and  an  ac 
curate  count  of  your  cannon,  muskets,  pistols,  lances  and 
swords,  and  of  every  grain  of  gunpowder  you  possess.  You 
are  safe  behind  your  two  rivers  and  they  are  so  distracted 
with  civil  strife,  so  doubtful  of  their  own  tenure  of  power, 
so  in  dread  of  the  Viceroy  at  Lima,  that  you  have  nothing 
to  fear  from  them.  So  be  sensible  as  well  as  just  and  write 
out  an  order  for  Don  Manuel's  release,  despatch  it  by  a 
swift  courier  to  Comandante  Don  Pelayo  Robles  at  Curu- 
guatay,  and  give  me  an  order  on  Don  Meliton  Isasi  or  Don 
Cristobal  de  Maria  or  Don  Mauricio  Zelaya,  so  I  can  get  a 
brig  off  at  once  to  Quarepoti  to  meet  them  there  and  take 
them  to  Corrientes." 

"You  have  thought  it  all  out,  I  see,  '  '  Francia  smiled.  '  *  I 
grant  it.  You  reason  well.  I  am  almost  convinced  that  Don 
Manuel  is  innocent  and  should  be  released,  as  he  shall  ber 
since  you  plead  for  him.  You  need  not  have  argued.  I 
should  have  granted  a  mere  request,  unsupported  by  argu 
ments.  '  ' 

"I  can  make  mere  requests,  unsupported  by  arguments, 
when  I  choose,"  Ventura  declared.  "I  am  going  to  make 
one  now.  You  must  have  conjectured  that  Don  Guillermo- 
went  straight  from  you  to  see  me  and  that  that  is  why  I 
am  here.  Now  I  want  you  to  promise  me  that  you  will  not 
only  never  let  Don  Guillermo  see  any  difference  in  your 
treatment  of  him  because  of  his  judicious  appeal  to  me,  not 
only  that  you  will  never  treat  him  any  differently  than  you 
jWould  if  he  had  not  gone  to  me;  but  that  you  will  never 


538  EL   SUPREMO 

show  by  action,  gesture,  look  or  word  that  you  know  he  ap 
pealed  to  me;  will  not  so  much  as  let  it  colour  your 
thoughts  of  him.  Promise ! ' ' 

Francia  regarded  her  steadily.  Her  eyes  did  not  leave 
his. 

"You  can  be  dictatorial/'  he  said;  "more  dictatorial 
than  the  Dictator." 

"The  difference,"  she  retorted  vigorously,  "is  that  I 
am  dictatorial  only  when  I  am  right;  you  are  most  dicta 
torial  when  you  are  wholly  in  the  wrong. ' ' 

Again  he  gazed  at  her;  again  she  met  his  brow-beating 
stare. 

"No  wonder,"  he  ejaculated,  "that  they  call  you  'Em 
press  Ventura. '  3 

"I'll  have  need,"  she  shot  back  at  him,  "of  all  the  quali 
ties  they  impute  to  me,  if  I  am  to  get  along  with  you  and 
not  be  extinguished,  effaced,  obliterated!" 

She  spoke  hotly. 

Much  astonished,  Francia  queried: 

'  *  Why  do  you  say  that  ? ' ' 

"You  have  no  idea,"  she  exclaimed,  "how  dominating  a 
personality  you  possess.  You  radiate  compulsion  as  a  con 
flagration  diffuses  heat.  Every  other  nature  in  your  pres- 
>ence  collapses  and  vanishes.  I  have  held  out  against  you, 
but  I  am  as  exhausted  in  every  fibre  of  me,  body  and  soul, 
as  I  am  in  mind  after  one  of  our  chess-games.  If  I  am  to 
live  any  sort  of  life  of  my  own  with  you,  to  be  any  sort  of  a 
helpmate  to  you,  as  you  forecast,  I  must  prove  myself  im 
perial  in  all  ways,  shall  have  to  manifest  myself  an  empress 
indeed." 

"Am  I  so  terrible?"  Francia  mused,  adding:  "Is  a 
<;hess-game  with  me  such  an  effort?  You  beat  me  always 
when  I  give  you  a  queen,  and  once  out  of  five  games  when 
I  give  you  a  rook.  I  thought  you  enjoyed  our  games." 

"I  do?"  said  Ventura  frankly,  "but  they  exhaust  me. 
Opposition  to  you,  of  any  kind,  is  almost  impossible !  Beat 
ing  you  at  chess,  particularly  when  you  have  both  knights 
at  the  end  of  the  game,  is  a  fearful  joy.  But  it  is  dearly 
earned,  for  the  labour  is  really  terrific." 

Francia  turned  to  his  table. 

"I'll  write  both  orders  for  you,"  he  said. 


IBIRAI  539 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII 

IBIRAI 
(1) 

HAWTHORNE,  passed  in  by  the  sentry  without  so 
much  as  the  formality  of  calling  for  Gomez,  found 
him  in  the  act  of  unlocking  the  door  of  the  women's  part 
of  the  prison.  With  a  flourish  which  was  but  the  last  ges 
ticulation  of  his  greeting,  Gomez  waved  him  to  enter.  Three 
strides  carried  Hawthorne  to  the  door  of  the  hut.  At  sight 
of  him,  Cecilia  dropped  her  tambour-frame  and  cried : 

"Will!" 

It  was  a  sharp,  staccato  sound,  almost  a  scream,  instantly 
bitten  off.  There  was  in  it  a  ring  of  completely  English 
utterance. 

Hawthorne  stood  petrified. 

Cecilia,  already  perfectly  self-controlled,  retrieved  her 
embroidery,  greeted  him  formally  in  clear,  soft  Spanish, 
and  gestured  towards  the  stool.  When  he  had  seated  him 
self,  she  asked : 

"What  caused  you  to  return,  Don  Guillermo,  without 
'carrying  out  your  intention?" 

"I  have  carried  out  my  intentions,"  Hawthorne  de 
clared. 

"You  have  completed  the  circuit  of  Paraguay  since  I 
saw  you  ? ' '  Cecilia  exclaimed. 

"I  have,"  Hawthorne  affirmed,  "and  have  ascended  and 
descended  every  considerable  affluent  of  the  Parana  not  only 
from  our  side,  but  also  from  the  side  of  Brazil." 

' '  You  work  miracles ! ' '  was  Cecilia 's  comment. 

' '  I  wish, ' '  said  Hawthorne,  ' '  I  had  the  miraculous  power 
to  cause  you  to  repeat  what  you  said  when  I  first  came  in. ' ' 

4 '  I  am  quite  willing  to  rehearse  it, ' '  Cecilia  said,  and  she 
repeated  her  formal  Spanish  greeting,  with  a  wonderfully 
taking  whimsical  manner. 

"I  do  not  mean  that,"  Hawthorne  corrected  her.     "I 
mean  what  you  said  first,  when  you  dropped  your  em 
broidery-hoop.  ' ' 
i     "Dropped  my  hoop!"  Cecilia  exclaimed.    "It" 


540  EL   SUPREMO 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  affirmed.  "I  saw  you  drop  it 
and  pick  it  up." 

'  *  How  rude  of  you  to  let  me  pick  it  up,  if  you  had  been 
so  remiss!"  Cecilia  teased  him.  ''But  I  assure  you  you 
are  guiltless.  You  did  not  so  far  forget  yourself.  I  did 
not  pick  it  up,  for  I  did  not  drop  it.  You  are  over-fatigued 
on  account  of  your  journey  and  imagine  you  see  what  has 
not  occurred. 

"Yes,  and  fancy  that  you  hear  sounds  never  uttered. 

"Tell  me  of  your  miraculous  journey." 

And  she  fell  to  questioning  him  as  to  dates,  distances, 
and  localities,  putting  him  through  a  full  and  minute  in 
terrogatory. 

She  kept  this  up  till  he  rose  to  go.  No  effort  of  his  could 
induce  her  to  recur  to  her  apparent  emotion  at  his  en 
trance. 

(2) 

The  grass-green  satin  of  Don  Gil  Romero's  coat  and 
breeches,  the  scarlet  of  his  waistcoat  and  coat-facings,  the 
placid  face  of  their  owner,  handsome  despite  his  bristly 
black  hair,  struck  Hawthorne  with  surprise  as  he  entered 
Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop.  Still  more  astonished  was  he  to  see 
chubby,  sleepy  Don  Arturo  Balaguer  beside  his  brother-in- 
law.  Dr.  Bargas,  after  the  greetings  were  completed,  per 
orated  pompously: 

"And  to  conclude,  Don  Guillermo,  let  me  present  two 
recruits  to  our  conspiracy,  Don  Gil  and  Don  Arturo. ' ' 

Don  Arturo  smiled  wordlessly  at  Hawthorne 's  expression 
of  amazement,  and  Don  Gil  blandly  explained : 

"We  are  all  in  it  except  Vicente.  We  have  not  yet  told 
him,  though  Desiderio  and  Carmelo  feel  that  they  should. 
We  could  not  restrain  ourselves  from  joining.  As  well  die 
in  the  field  fighting  as  rot  in  prison.  It  is  only  a  question 
of  time  for  all  of  us,  even  for  the  Bishop,  if  that  man's 
power  continues." 

Here  Padre  Bogarin  burst  out  with  vituperations  against 
Francia  and  told  Hawthorne  a  recent  instance  of  his  arbi 
trary  behaviour.  Shortly  after  Hawthorne 's  departure  the 
Dictator  had  set  his  two  nephews  at  liberty.  Francisco  had 
immediately  fallen  violently  in  love  with  a  beautiful  octo 
roon  girl.  Her  mother,  a  very  pious  quadroon,  had  con- 


IBIRAI  541 

suited  the  Bishop.  The  good  Bishop  had  expostulated  with 
Don  Francisco,  who  had  expressed  his  entire  willingness  to 
many  the  girl.  The  excellent  Bishop,  overjoyed  at  such  an 
unexpected  evidence  of  virtue  in  a  Marecos,  had  repeated 
his  favourite  aphorism  that  at  Asuncion  the  grace  of  God 
was  manifested  in  a  very  special  manner  and  had  hastened 
the  wedding  as  much  as  possible,  himself  performing  the 
ceremony,  without  publishing  the  banns  even  once,  accord 
ing  the  dispensation  of  banns  which  lay  within  his  preroga 
tives  as  Bishop. 

Francia  had  been  furious,  had  berated  and  threatened 
the  Bishop,  ending  by  asking  had  he  forgotten  that  he,  as 
the  Supreme  Dictator,  was  head  of  the  church  in  Paraguay. 
The  Bishop,  an  obstinate  royalist,  who  had  always  refused 
to  recognise  the  revolution  by  any  formal  utterance,  though 
he  had  tacitly  acknowledged  it  by  many  official  acts,  had 
answered  mildly,  though  drily,  that  he  had  indeed  forgot 
ten.  Francia  had  thereupon  raged  at  him  and  wound  up 
by  remarking  slyly  that,  since  his  memory  needed  some  con 
stant  reminder  as  to  who  was  head  of  the  Paraguayan 
church,  he  would  order  the  canopy  over  his  episcopal  chair 
in  the  cathedral  to  be  removed ;  its  absence  would  be  a  daily 
admonition. 

He  had  then  promulgated  a  bando,  prohibiting  all  secret 
marriages ;  reviving  and  affirming  the  most  stringent  regu 
lations  about  the  publishing  of  banns  before  weddings ;  also 
proclaiming  null  and  void  any  future  ceremony  of  marriage 
between  any  person  of  unmixed  white  blood  and  any  negro, 
mulatto,  quadroon,  octoroon  or  mestizo.  That  Don  Fran 
cisco's  marriage  with  the  octoroon  girl  was  not  itself  de 
clared  null  and  void  was  popularly  attributed  to  Ventura 's 
influence  or  intercession,  as  the  girl's  mother  had  been  a 
servant  of  the  Velardes. 

When  Padre  Bogarin  paused  for  breath,  Dr.  Bargas 
trumpeted : 

"Even  worse  than  that  was  the  case  of  poor  Don  Me- 
dardo." 

"His  treatment  of  Don  Medardo,"  Padre  Bogarin  re 
torted  stiffly,  "was  indeed  inexplicable,  but  it  involved  no 
insult  to  the  Bishop. ' ' 

"True,  Lisardo,  true,"  Dr.  Bargas  hastened  to  admit, 
' '  but  it  was  certainly  even  more  arbitrary. ' ' 


542  EL   SUPREMO 

Hawthorne  looked  about  the  warehouse  from  one  face 
to  the  next;  all  were  more  or  less  reserved. 

Don  Gil,  in  his  quiet  way,  put  in : 

"Don  Medardo  reached  Asuncion  after  Don  Guillermo 
departed. ' ' 

Don  Gregorio  cleared  his  throat  and  remarked : 

"The  story  is  worth  hearing,  Senor  Don  Guillermo." 

He  paused  a  moment  and  began : 

"Some  time  between  Christmas  and  New  Year 's, Don  Ber 
nardo  informed  me  that  Pai  Mbatu  was  dividing  his  scanty 
means  of  subsistence  with  a  destitute  stranger,  whom  he 
had  taken  into  his  cottage.  A  day  or  two  later  Don  Gume- 
sindo  told  me  the  same  story,  adding  that  Pai  Mbatu 's 
protege  was  a  Spaniard  of  the  pure  blood  and  manifestly  a 
gentleman  born.  With  Don  Vicente  I  visited  Pai  Mbatu  ?s 
cottage  and  found  the  guest  was  Don  Medardo  Bustamente, 
formerly  of  Buenos  Aires,  more  lately  of  Corrientes,  where 
he  had  taken  up  his  abode  because  his  friend,  Don  Esteba» 
Maria  Perrichon,  had  obtained  the  office  of  Postmaster  Gen* 
eral  there. 

"Not  long  after  you  came  to  Asuncion  the  Artiguenos 
made  one  of  their  periodical  raids  into  Corrientes ;  partly, 
as  usual,  to  assert  the  supremacy  of  the  Lord  Protector  of 
the  Banda  Oriental  over  that  city  in  particular,  partly  for 
booty.  On  that  occasion  they  were  commanded  by  a  Colonel 
Ramirez,  who  had  been  with  General  Belgrano  when  he  in 
vaded  Paraguay  and  whose  rashness  and  incompetence  had 
contributed  not  a  little  to  our  success  and  Don  Manuel's 
discomfiture. 

"Ramirez,  it  seems,  had  known  Don  Medardo  in  Buenos 
Aires  and  conceived  a  dislike  towards  him.  I  believe  some 
beauty  had  scorned  the  low-born  soldier  and  smiled  upon 
the  handsome  Mexican.  At  all  events,  Ramirez,  the  instant 
he  recognised  Don  Medardo,  had  him  arrested,  consigned 
him  to  the  care  of  six  of  his  ruffians,  and  gave  them  instruc 
tions. 

' '  They  bound  him,  cast  him  into  a  small  boat,  and  rowed 
him  up  the  river  to  a  low,  marshy,  wooded  islet.  There 
they  stripped  him,  fired  a  volley  at  him  and  left  him  pierced 
by  four  bullets,  thinking  him  dead. 

' '  There  he  was  found  by  a  band  of  Payagua  Indians,  who 
saved  his  life,  clothed  him  with  a  poncho  and  a  chiripd  and 


IBIRAI  543 

took  him  with  them  up  the  river  and  on  up  the  Paraguay. 
For  some  reason  of  their  own,  they  kept  to  the  Gran  Chaco 
side  of  the  river,  eluded  the  patrol-boats  at  Neembucu  and 
Herredura,  and  landed  Don  Medardo  at  Asuncion,  convey 
ing  him  by  night  to  Pai  Mbatu,  with  whom  their  tribe  has 
long  had  some  sort  of  understanding. 

"Don  Bernardo,  Don  Vicente  and  I  got  up  a  subscription 
for  Don  Medardo 's  benefit,  and  were  getting  signatures, 
collecting  contributions  and  considering  means  of  giving 
him  relief  more  than  temporary,  when  his  presence  in 
Asuncion  became  known  at  the  Palacio.  Instantly  El  Su 
premo  sent  for  him,  recognised  him  as  one  of  his  compan 
ions  at  the  University  of  Cordova  de  Tucuman,  reproached 
him  for  not  immediately  appealing  to  him,  had  him  clothed 
by  the  best  tailor  in  the  city,  provided  him  with  all  neces 
sities  of  dress,  gave  him  a  horse  and  horse-furniture,  pro 
cured  him  a  servant  and  rented  for  him  a  comfortable  cot 
tage,  the  second  from  Don  Bernardo's  towards  the  Convent 
of  Mercy,  assuring  him  besides  of  a  regular  cash  allowance 
paid  weekly ;  saying  that  all  this  was  but  inadequate  recom 
pense  for  what  he  had  done  for  him  at  Cordova. 

"Don  Medardo  became  at  once  a  valued  member  of 
Asuncion  society,  being  handsome,  cultured  and  charming. 
He  resorted  frequently  to  this  agreeable  wine-shop,  at 
tended  tertulias  at  Don  Vicente 's  and  those  of  Don  Toribio, 
Don  Antonio  and  Don  Baltasar.  He  was  much  at  the  Pala 
cio,  for  he  played  chess  well.  He  often  supped  with  the 
Dictator. 

"One  morning,  about  a  month  ago,  Don  Vicente,  Don 
Bernardo,  and  I  had  an  appointment  to  go  partridge  shoot 
ing  with  him.  Don  Vicente  and  I,  on  our  way  to  Don  Ber 
nardo's,  called  for  him.  His  man  declared  he  had  gone  the 
night  before  to  the  Palacio  to  sup  with  El  Supremo,  and 
had  not  returned.  We  feared  to  inquire  for  him,  and  only 
three  days  later  did  we  learn  that  he  lay  shackled  in  a  dun 
geon.  He  lies  there  now.  No  rumour  has  leaked  out  as  to 
why  he  was  arrested,  when,  or  where. ' ' 

(3) 

Cecilia's  interrogatory  as  to  his  journey  had  rather 
piqued  Hawthorne,  who  had  anticipated  no  scepticism  from 


544  EL   SUPREMO 

any  one,  least  of  all  from  her.  Over  his  dinner  at  the  Pa- 
lacio  he  blessed  her,  for  his  recital  of  his  adventures  had 
made  him  prompt  and  ready  with  clear  answers,  of  which 
he  felt  the  need  through  a  long,  searching  and  inquisitorial 
cross-examination.  The  ordeal  of  this  insistent  catechising 
he  underwent  easily,  thanks  to  his  rehearsal  with  Cecilia. 

Francia,  gnawing  the  last  fibres  of  flesh  and  sinew  from 
the  last  bone  of  his  roast  pigeon,  acknowledged  himself  con 
vinced. 

"Nobody,  I  dare  affirm,"  said  he,  "ever  had  such  luck 
before  or  ever  will  have  such  luck  again.  If  I  were  to  send 
out,  to  follow  your  track,  one  party  each  month  for  twenty 
years,  the  quickest  of  the  two  hundred  and  forty  parties 
would  not  accomplish  the  journey  in  twice  the  time  you 
spent  on  it.  Really  to  have  about  one  a  human  being  so 
favoured  by  chance,  fate,  Providence,  or  what  you  please 
to  call  it,  certainly  by  the  sun,  winds,  weather,  forests, 
rivers,  mountains  and  plains,  is  almost  a  terrifying  circum 
stance.  Your  uncanny  luck  makes  you  positively  an  object 
of  dread. " 

Hawthorne  smiled,  for  Francia  was  taking  snuff  in  huge 
pinches,  constantly  repeated,  and  was  evidently  in  high 
good  humour. 

"Now  for  your  deductions  and  conclusions,"  he  hinted. 

1  *  In  the  first  place, ' '  said  Hawthorne,  ' '  Comandante  Fer 
nandez  had  a  good  eye  and  a  clear  head.  His  report  is 
justified  by  the  facts.  Tevego  is  an  ideal  place  for  a  penal 
colony.  I  saw  none  better,  none  so  good. ' ' 

"111  regard  that  as  finally  settled,"  Francia  chirped. 
"  I  '11  give  orders  at  once  to  prepare  Tevego  to  receive  pris 
oners,  and  set  about  sorting  out  from  the  prison  those  who 
had  best  be  sent  there. 

"And  how  about  yer~ba?" 

"Most  encouraging,"  Hawthorne  declared.  "You  need 
fear  no  competition  from  Brazil,  I  judge.  Of  course,  we 
cannot  be  certain.  But  the  true  Paraguayan  yerba-ilex. 
seems  closely  confined  to  Paraguay.  Such  yerbales  as  blan 
ket  the  country  all  about  the  Ypane  Guazu  do  not  extend 
beyond  the  Rio  Apa.  Groves  of  the  same  tree  exist  farther 
north,  but  thinner  and  more  scattered.  Beyond  the  Tepoty 
they  thin  out  to  almost  nothing,  and  the  ilexes  are  all  of 
the  inferior  spotted-leaved  variety.  All  up  the  Rio  Blanco, 


IBIRAI  545 

among  the  hills,  and  on  the  Ivinheyma,  I  found  none  but 
the  inferior  trees.  So  also  on  the  Brazilian  side  of  the 
Parana. 

"Now,  of  course,  it  may  happen  that  farther  north  and 
east,  far  beyond  where  I  reached,  there  may  exist  extensiver 
even  vast,  yerlales  of  the  true  Paraguayan  variety.  But 
this  is  too  unlikely  to  consider.  There  are,  I  take  it,  no 
yerbales  of  the  most  desirable  kind  anywhere  in  Brazil. 

"But  everywhere  I  landed  in  Missiones  the  t/erfra-trees 
are  not  only  Paraguayan  ilexes,  but  the  very  best  I  have 
ever  seen.  To  control  the  yerba  market  of  the  world,  you. 
must  control  Missiones. ' ' 

Francia  pulled  a  wry  face. 

"Our  mighty  dream  dissolves  in  smoke, "  he  said.  "I 
cannot  hope  to  exercise  any  sway  beyond  the  Parana, 
though  Missiones  is  ours  by  every  right,  if  right  availed 
anything  in  these  regions  in  these  days.  As  it  is,  I  cannot 
even  dream  of  controlling  Missiones." 

1  i  Not  all  Missiones,  certainly, ' '  Hawthorne  agreed.  * '  But 
upper  Missiones  is  not  unthinkable  as  an  appanage  of 
Paraguay.  I  made  a  valuable  acquaintance  at  Candel- 
aria." 

"Who?"  Francia  shot  at  him,  suddenly  all  interest. 

Hawthorne  thereupon  told  of  his  two  interviews  with 
the  Irish  Gaucho.  Francia  put  in  many  questions,  and 
finally  remarked : 

' '  He  seems  to  possess  not  a  few  good  qualities,  but,  mani 
festly,  he  is  handicapped  by  many  weaknesses." 

"He  has  one  weakness  useful  to  us,"  Hawthorne  ex 
panded.  "He  thinks  he  can  drink  without  limit  and  re 
main  sober." 

"He  tattled?"  Francia  queried. 

"Garrulously,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "when  he  was  un 
braced  with  brandy.  He  betrayed  the  key  to  all  that  dis 
trict  and  made  it  perfectly  clear  that  six  hundred  good 
cavalry  at  Tranguera  de  San  Miguel  could  scour  the  whole 
country  from  Itaty  to  Apostoles,  even  to  San  Tome,  and 
would  be  more  than  sufficient  to  protect  the  region  to  the 
north  and  east  of  their  patrol-line.  Artigas  cannot  well 
pass  between  the  Parana  and  the  marshes  of  Lake  Ibera, 
so  that  it  would  be  only  the  open  upland  below  Apostoles 
between  the  marshes  and  the  Uruguay  River  that  the  de« 


546  EL   SUPREMO 

tachment  would  have  to  guard.  Such  a  command  could 
easily  keep  him  out  of  all  Mission es. ' ' 

"It  is  so  easy,"  Francia  sighed,  "to  talk  about  keeping 
Artigas  out  of  this,  that,  or  the  other  locality,  so  difficult 
to  keep  him  out.  Actually  no  man  has  kept  Don  Gervasio 
out  of  anywhere  since  he  was  eighteen  years  old.  For  thir 
ty-five  years  he  has  roamed  at  will ;  for  the  past  five  years 
he  has  ravaged  as  he  pleased.  Yet  I  see  a  gleam  of  plausi 
bility  in  the  idea.  A  capable  man  with  six  hundred  good 
cavalry  might  conceivably  succeed.  But  how  am  I  to  spare 
six  hundred  cavalry,  let  alone  six  hundred  good  cavalry? 
I  have  not  that  many  really  good  cavalrymen.  And  could  I 
;spare  the  men,  whom  have  I  to  command  them?  I  might 
send  Joaquin  Lopez.  But  whether  Don  Joaquin  or  any 
less  proven  commander,  the  upshot  must  be  the  same.  If 
lie  blundered,  I  should  lose  six  hundred  good  cavalry;  if 
he  turned  out  competent,  with  his  veteran  six  hundred  he 
would  march  on  Asuncion,  oust  me,  and  be  Dictator  of 
Paraguay.  This  is  the  curse  I  must  struggle  with.  I  can 
find  no  man  whom  I  can  trust  both  not  to  fail  and,  if  suc 
cessful,  to  remain  loyal. 

"All  the  same,  I  shall  ponder  the  suggestion;  it  is  too 
tempting  to  ignore,  too  fascinating  to  forget. " 

"Whether  you  carry  it  out  or  not,"  said  Hawthorne, 
"you  can  surely  keep  watch  on  Missiones  by  secret  agents, 
and  if  any  man  attempts  to  cultivate  yerba  you  could  raid 
across  the  river  and  obliterate  his  plantation. ' ' 

"I  should  indubitably  destroy  any  artificial  yerbal," 
Francia  said,  "and  arrest  its  originator.  That  would  be 
entirely  practicable,  and  even  easy.  A  raid  is  a  far  dif 
ferent  matter  from  a  permanent  occupation." 

"Then,"  Hawthorne  summed  up,  "as  there  are  no  trees 
of  the  best  variety  of  yerba  outside  of  Paraguay  and  Mis 
siones,  you  can  forever  control  the  world's  output  of  the 
best  yerba.  Danger  of  serious  competition  vanishes.  You 
can  realise  your  dream  on  its  largest  scale." 

Francia,  smiling,  took  a  huge  pinch  of  snuff. 

At  this  evidence  of  good  humour,  Hawthorne  ventured 
to  tell  of  Campbell's  attempt  to  provide  himself  with  % 
haven  of  refuge. 

"Humph!"  said  Francia.  "Like  his  Irish  impudence! 
But  for  Don  Pedro  I  should  now  be  in  possession  of  Cor- 


IBIRAI  547 

rientes.  It  was  only  his  dare-devil  valour  that  defeated 
and  sunk  my  fleet.  Had  he  not  been  there,  the  Corren- 
tinos  would  have  surrendered  to  Sobremonte,  and  then,, 
once  in  possession  of  the  place,  I  could  have  reinforced  it 
as  often  as  necessary,  with  a  good  fleet  to  keep  communica 
tions  open.  He  robbed  me  of  Corrientes,  of  my  fleet,  and 
of  poor  Sobremonte,  who  was  as  loyal  as  Ortellado,  which 
is  saying  a  great  deal. 

"But  Don  Pedro  has  always  fought  fair.  I  should  wel 
come  him,  if  he  came.  For  that  matter,  I  should  welcome 
Don  Gervasio  himself  if  he  sought  my  protection.  He  also 
has  always  been  perfectly  open  and  fair  in  all  his  hostility 
to  me.  Don  Pedro,  like  Artigas,  has  never  done  or  partici 
pated  in  anything  underhand.  That  is  a  very  strong  claim 
to  my  regard.  Also,  I  need  tanners ;  I  should  shelter  him  if 
he  needed  a  refuge.  But  I  should  never  let  him  north  of 
Neembucu:  he  would  be  the  darling  of  my  troops  in  six 
months,  and  might  be  Dictator  in  a  year.  No  scholarly 
drill-master  like  me  could  cope  with  an  all-round  warrior 
like  Campbell,  equally  good  at  combat  or  command  and 
hero  of  a  hundred  battles. ' ' 

He  sipped  the  last  of  his  coffee  and  took  another  big 
pinch  of  snuff. 

"Shall  we  try  chess?"  he  queried. 

In  the  study  he  won  two  short  games  and  was  winning 
the  third  when  a  too-venturesome  attack  weakened  his  de 
fence,  and  Hawthorne  saw  an  opening  which  led  him  to  a 
brilliant  six-move  checkmate. 

Francia's  good-humour  instantly  vanished.  He  pushed 
his  chair  back  from  the  table,  and  began  asking  questions 
about  the  yerbales  on  the  Acaray  River.  The  answers  did 
not  seem  to  please  him,  and  he  stood  up.  Hawthorne  rose 
also. 

"Sit  down,  Don  Guillermo,"  the  Dictator  said;  "sit 
down,  I  beg  of  you.  I  am  only  thinking. ' ' 

He  fidgeted  back  and  forth  from  the  side  window  to  the 
door,  squeezing  between  the  tall  water- jar  and  the  book 
shelves,  fingering  the  backs  of  the  books. 

"It  frets  me,"  he  said,  "to  find  my  memory  fail  on  any 
point.  I  have  been  bothered  ever  since  a  little  while  after 
you  left,  because  I  cannot  locate  a  Latin  quotation.  I  was- 
certain  it  was  in  Ovid,  but  I  have  read  him  through  twice 


548 


EL   SUPREMO 


-and  either  I  missed  it  or  it  is  not  there.  I  have  searched  at 
random,  hut  in  vain.  It  has  worried  me  more  than  gov 
erning  Paraguay  and  dodging  assassins." 

"What  is  the  quotation?"  Hawthorne  queried. 

"  f  Habent  sua  fata  libelli,'  "  the  Dictator  quoted. 

"Oh,"  said  Hawthorne,  "  'Books  have  their  fates.'  I 
*can  tell  you  where  to  find  that.  It's  in  Terentianus 
Maurus. ' ' 

"Terentianus  Maurus!"  Francia  exclaimed.  "A  beg 
garly  grammarian!  I  don't  believe  you.  You  are  wrong 
for  once.  For  once  your  memory  is  as  treacherous,  in  its 
way,  as  mine  is  to  me.  I'll  wager  you  are  mistaken." 

"There  is  no  use  arguing  about  it,"  Hawthorne  replied. 
"If  you  have  any  edition  of  Terentianus,  I  can  put  my 
finger  on  the  line  in  a  moment.  I  do  not  recall  its  number, 
"but  I  have  a  vague  idea  it  is  something  like  1258.  I  have  a 
general  recollection  of  the  context.  He  says  some  will  find 
his  book  wordy,  and  others  will  hold  it  cheap  because  they 
Imow  more  themselves  already.  I  remember  the  entire  line. 
It  is: 

"  'Pro  captu  lectoris  habent  sua  fata  libetti.' } 

"  'According  to  the  capacity  of  the  reader,  books  have 
their  fates/  "  Francia  translated.  "That  is  striking! 

"I  tried  to  read  Terentianus  once,  years  ago,  but  only 
skimmed  through  him,  for  much  of  what  he  said  about 
spellings  and  pronunciations  was  totally  unintelligible  to 
me.  So  telling  a  line  as  that  I  should  have  relished.  And 
you  claim  he  wrote  that !  Bah !  Prove  it,  if  you  can.  Until 
you  show  it  to  me,  I  am  more  than  sceptical.  If  he  wrote 
it,  you  can  find  it,  for  I  have  a  volume  of  the  works  of  the 
Latin  grammarians,  all  of  them  together,  none  left  out,  I 
believe.  It  is  a  German  collection,  a  quarto  printed  about 
1600,  as  near  as  I  can  remember." 

He  ran  his  hand  along  one  of  the  upper  shelves.  Ex 
tracting  a  book,  he  remarked : 

"Edited  by  Elias  Putsche.  Hanover  1605,  I  almost  re 
member  the  date." 

Turning,  he  asked : 

' '  Can  you  catch,  American  fashion  ? ' ' 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  replied,  his  hands  ready;  and 
he  neatly  caught  the  volume  Francia  threw  him  across  tne 
big  table. 


IBIRAI  549 

While  he  turned  over  the  pages,  Francia  lit  a  fresh  cigar 
and  stood  puffing  it  and  gazing  at  his  guest. 

Hawthorne  looked  up  in  surprise. 

"Why,"  he  exclaimed,  "nearly  a  fifth  of  the  pages  are 
torn  out.  Only  the  first  part  of  Agrretius  remains,  barely 
the  last  tenth  of  Plotius.  Between  them,  Cassiodorus,  Beda 
and  Victorinus  have  vanished  totally,  and  with  them  Teren- 
tianus  as  completely. '  ' 

* '  Pooh ! ' '  Francia  snorted.  ' '  I  should  have  known  by  the 
binding.  That  is  not  my  old  copy  of  the  grammarians ;  it 
is  one  Pal  Mbatu  gave  me.  His  father  had  a  dozen  books, 
perhaps  even  a  score.  Pai  Mbatu  used  most  of  them  to 
light  fires  with.  I  did  him  a  service  while  I  was  living  in 
retirement  at  Ibirai.  Of  course,  he  could  not  pay  me,  but 
he  gave  me  the  two  books  he  had  left  by  way  of  an  expres 
sion  of  gratitude.  He  had  torn  leaves  out  of  both.  I  for 
get  what  the  other  book  was,  but  this  is  one  of  the  two. 

'  *  Now  where  is  my  own  copy  of  the  grammarians  ? ' ' 

He  scanned  the  backs  of  the  books,  taking  out  one  after 
another  and  putting  each  back.  As  he  went  on  he  fumed, 
stuffed  the  books  back  anyhow  and  then  began  pulling  them 
from  their  places  and  looking  behind  them.  Half  of  those 
he  moved  and  many  of  those  he  disinterred  he  threw  or 
piled  on  the  floor.  As  his  rummaging  went  on  and  each 
fresh  attempt  resulted  in  disappointment,  he  became  more 
and  more  irritated.  He  rooted  among  the  books,  tumbled 
them  about,  muttered  under  his  breath,  now  and  then 
brushed  back  his  hair  from  his  forehead,  appeared  hot  and 
flustered. 

All  of  a  sudden  he  paused,  rooted  in  his  place,  and  stood 
petrified.  Hawthorne,  instantly  as  moveless,  listened  in 
tently. 

"It  is  not  that,"  Francia  laughed.  "I  heard  nothing. 
"Nothing  is  amiss.  I  am  only  vexed  with  my  bad  memory. 
We  shall  have  to  postpone  settling  the  point  until  to-mor 
row  night  or  later.  I  remember  now  that  I  never  brought 
that  volume  in  from  Ibirai.  I  have  missed  it  more  than 
once,  have  several  times  intended  to  fetch  it,  have  even 
ridden  out  there  expressly  for  it,  but  have  always  forgot 
ten  it." 

"We  could  settle  the  point  to-night,"  Hawthorne  said. 

"How?"  Francia  exclaimed. 


550  EL   SUPREMO 

1  'It  is  early  yet,"  Hawthorne  said.  "I  might  fetch  the 
book  from  Ibirai." 

"Afoot!"  cried  his  host. 

"Not  at  all,"  Hawthorne  replied.  "I'll  wager  Bopi 
knows  where  to  find  a  horse  promptly  if  you  give  the 
order!" 

' '  Humph ! ' '  Francia  grunted.  ' '  Perspicacious  New  Eng- 
lander!  A  horse  is  handy,  as  you  conjecture.  In  fact,  one 
stands  ready  saddled  and  bridled,  tethered  just  inside  the 
gate  of  the  kitchen  garden.  You  can  be  at  Ibirai  by  ten 
and  back  by  eleven." 

He  snapped  the  hunting-case  of  his  repeater. 

"I  can  do  it  in  better  time  than  that,  if  the  horse  is 
as  good  as  most  of  yours.  Lend  me  a  poncho  and  I  am 
off." 

"Why  a  poncho?"  Francia  queried.  "This  mild  night 
you'll  be  better  without  one." 

"I  don't  want  to  be  recognised,"  Hawthorne  answered. 

"Of  course!"  Francia  reflected,  staring  at  his  guest. 

After  a  long,  silent  scrutiny,  he  burst  out : 

* i  Do  you  really  mean  to  tell  me  you  are  serious,  that  you 
would  gallop  to  Ibirai  and  back  just  to  settle  between  us  a 
trifling  point  like  that  at  eleven  at  night  instead  of  waiting 
until  eleven  to-morrow  morning,  just  to  have  the  satisfac 
tion  of  being  proved  right  or  wrong  before  your  night's 
sleep  instead  of  before  dinner  to-morrow  ? ' ' 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  asseverated.  "I'll  sleep  better 
for  the  gallop  and  for  having  the  matter  off  my  mind.  So 
will  you  sleep  better. ' ' 

"What  energy  you  North  Americans  have!"  the  Dic 
tator  ejaculated.  "Any  Spaniard  or  Creole  would  sleep 
serenely  and  probably  forget  the  dispute  altogether. 

1 '  Well,  if  you  are  willing  to  fetch  the  book  I  am  certainly 
all  agog  to  see  it. ' ' 

He  returned  to  his  chair,  picked  up  the  mutilated  book, 
and  said : 

"How  strange  are  the  fates  of  books,  indeed!  This,  as 
you  see,  must  have  been  the  property  of  some  French  no 
bleman  or  archbishop,  judging  by  the  sumptuous  green- 
leather  binding  and  its  gold  tooling.  The  tale  of  how  it 
reached  Asuncion  would  be  rarely  interesting,  could  we  but 
know  it.  And  how  strange  that  two  copies  of  so  peculiar 


IBIRAI  551 

a  book  should  find  their  way  to  this  outpost  in^the  wilder 
ness!  My  copy  is  very  differently  bound.  It  is  in  brown 
calfskin,  and  the  edges  of  the  leaves  are  red.  It  looks  much 
like  that  Amsterdam  edition  of  Terence  I  lent  you  before 
you  went  exploring.  You  can  recognise  it  by  its  Dutch  ap 
pearance  as  soon  as  you  see  it.  I'll  find  you  a  poncho." 

Returning  with  a  marvel  almost  as  exquisite  as  his 
brother's,  Francia  handed  it  carelessly  to  Hawthorne  and 
led  the  way  into  the  kitchen-garden.  There,  close  to  the 
brink  of  the  bank  towards  the  inlet-lagoon,  was  a  narrow 
gate  or  heavy  door  in  the  high  brick  wall.  By  it  were  two 
horses,  both  saddled  and  bridled,  tethered  to  rings  in  the 
wall. 

Francia  patted  one  on  the  nose  and  stroked  its  neck.  So 
standing,  he  said : 

"You  cannot  miss  the  door,  as  there  is  only  one  under 
the  portico.  Here  is  the  key." 

He  produced  an  iron  instrument  longer  than  a  man's 
hand  and  proportionately  heavy.  Hawthorne  held  it  up 
and  peered  at  it  in  the  dim  starlight. 

"Put  it  in  the  keyhole  upside  down,"  Francia  directed, 
"and  turn  it  the  wrong  way.  The  books  are  all  on  one 
shelf,  I  think.  There  are  candles  on  the  table,  I  am  sure; 
I  was  out  at  Ibirai  night  before  last.  Have  you  flint  and 
steel?" 

"I  have,"  Hawthorne  affirmed.  "Trust  an  old  cam 
paigner.  ' ' 

He  pocketed  the  clumsy  key,  Francia  unhitched  the  roan 
stallion,  put  the  reins  in  Hawthorne 's  hand,  and  drew  back 
the  upper  bolt  of  the  gate.  Before  opening  it,  he  instructed 
him  how  to  knock  on  it  when  he  returned. 

"  1 11  spend  an  hour  over  my  books, ' '  the  great  man  said, 
* '  and  then  sit  out  here  and  meditate  until  you  come. ' ' 

Then  he  unbolted  and  set  wide  the  gate.  Once  the  horse 
had  been  cautiously  led  out,  Hawthorne  vaulted  into  the 
saddle,  his  feet  instantly  in  the  stirrups.  The  horse  gave  a 
plunge  or  two,  but  quieted  immediately  and  picked  his  way 
delicately  along  past  the  horn  of  the  inlet  to  the  right. 
Passing  the  second  and  third  of  the  Jesuits'  bridges,  Haw 
thorne  wheeled  to  his  left,  passed  between  the  Palacio  and 
the  squat  Cabildo,  trotted  the  length  of  the  almost  deserted 
Plaza,  cantered  along  Calle  Comercio,  turned  again  to  his 


552  EL   SUPREMO 

left  past  the  church  of  San  Bias  and  let  out  his  warmed 
mount  into  a  tearing  gallop. 

A  mile  or  so  beyond  the  suburbs  he  reined  up,  took  off 
his  poncho,  flung  it  before  him  across  the  saddle-bow,  and 
again  urged  the  horse  to  its  top  speed. 

He  remembered  every  fork  in  the  roads,  every  cross 
road,  and  reached  Ibirai  promptly,  reining  in  his  blown 
horse  as  he  recognised  the  neighbourhood. 

When  he  made  out  the  cottage  in  the  star-shine,  he  held 
in  his  mount  firmly  and  made  him  pick  his  way  towards  it 
at  a  walk. 

Close  to  the  house,  belly-deep  in  the  weeds,  the  stallion 
stumbled.  As  Hawthorne  pulled  him  up,  he  felt  the  brute 's 
hind-hoof  catch  on  the  same  obstruction,  and  realised  that 
he  was  over  the  log  on  which  Rivarola  had  been  shot. 

Tethering  his  mount  to  a  pillar  of  the  portico,  he  stepped 
blindly  in  the  direction  of  the  door.  Just  as  he  put  his 
hand  on  it  there  was  a  movement  on  his  left,  a  sound  be 
tween  a  bleat  and  a  yelp,  a  sort  of  shrill  snarl ;  and  a  hu 
man  figure  hurled  itself  at  him. 

Instinctively  Hawthorne  guarded  and  his  fist  shot  out. 
He  seemed  to  feel  the  impact  of  his  knuckles  on  a  human 
jaw ;  the  figure  crumpled  with  a  sob,  and  there  was  a  muf 
fled  thud  and  a  thumping  crack,  as  of  a  skull  on  the  brick 
pavement.  At  the  same  moment  he  was  aware  of  a  sharp 
pain  in  his  left  arm  and  the  warmth  of  blood  running  down 
his  elbow. 

He  drew  his  hanger  and  bent  forwards.  The  memory  of 
how  that  flesh  had  felt  when  his  fist  met  it  and  the  vague 
perception  his  eyes  gained  of  the  prostrate  figure  fused 
suddenly,  and  he  sickened  with  a  horrible  shudder  as  he 
realised  that  he  had  felled  a  woman. 

Certainly  she  lay  as  if  stunned;  that  much  was  plain, 
even  in  the  dark.  He  sheathed  his  hanger.  Then  he  fum 
bled  for  the  big  key,  found  the  keyhole,  opened  the  door, 
and  groped  his  way  to  the  table,  got  out  his  tinder-box  and 
lit  a  candle ;  lit  four  candles. 

A  glance  at  his  elbow,  once  he  had  torn  the  sleeve  open, 
showed  that  he  was  barely  scratched.    He  took  up  a  candle 
in  the  only  brass-candlestick  on  the  table  and  went  out  into 
the  portico. 
-     As  the  flickering  rays  fell  on  her  blank  face,  he  recog- 


THE   CONVENTION  553 

nised  the  octoroon  girl  he  had  met  the  first  day  he  reached 
Asuncion.  At  first  he  stared  at  her,  almost  as  numb  as  his 
victim:  then  he  knelt  by  her,  found  her  pulse,  listened  to 
her  breathing,  and  felt  the  back  of  her  head,  which  was 
not  bleeding. 

A  glint  caught  his  eye,  and  he  picked  up  a  sailor's  sheath- 
knife,  its  tip  streaked  with  his  blood. 

He  stood  up,  with  some  sort  of  instinct  bent  on  reviving 
the  girl.  Obedient  to  this  obsession,  he  went  into  the  house 
to  the  water- jar,  with  an  unformed  idea  of  dashing  water 
over  her.  He  found  the  jar  full  and  carried  a  carafe  of  it 
out  into  the  verandah,  the  candle  in  his  left  hand. 

The  girl  had  totally  vanished. 

At  once  Hawthorne  came  to  himself,  blew  out  the  candle, 
leapt  through  the  door  and  slammed  it  behind  him.  Hia 
next  thought  was  that  if  he  was  not  quick  he  might  find  his 
horse  gone  or  hamstrung.  He  coolly  looked  over  the  shelf, 
identified  the  book  he  wanted,  opened  it  and  made  sure, 
even  finding  Terentianus'  versified  treatise.  Then  he  blew 
out  all  the  candles,  found  the  door,  went  out,  locked  it  be 
hind  him,  and  strode  to  his  horse.  The  beast  whinnied  in  a 
friendly  fashion.  In  three  breaths  Hawthorne  was  in  the 
saddle.  Once  clear  of  the  weed-grown  premises,  he  spurred 
his  mount  into  a  maddened  run,  and  kept  the  terrific  pace 
until  he  was  aware  of  the  dumpy  tower  of  the  church  of 
San  Bias,  ahead  on  his  right.  Then  only  he  slowed  to  a 
canter. 

CHAPTER   XXXIX 

THE   CONVENTION 
(1) 

ACROSS  the  study-table  Francia  stared  at  Hawthorne. 
''Aha!"  he  cried.     "I  was  right!     But  be  not  so 
chagrined.     Anybody  might  err  in  ascribing  a  quotation. 
Do  not  be  utterly  crushed  because  you  were  wrong." 

"But  I  was  not  mistaken,"  Hawthorne  declared.  "At 
least  I  have  not  yet  looked  for  the  line  in  Terentianus. ' ' 

' '  Good  God ! ' '  Francia  ejaculated.  ' '  Then  what  is  wrong 
with  you?  Tell  me  what  has  happened," 


554  EL   SUPREMO 

Hawthorne  told. 

For  the  first  and  last  time  he  saw  the  Dictator  raving-, 
heard  him  curse  and  swear.  Up  and  down  the  study  he 
strode,  like  a  caged  beast,  pouring  out  imprecations.  He 
paused  at  last  merely  for  lack  of  breath. 

He  did  not  pause  long,  but  burst  out  again,  this  time  in 
rational  sentences. 

"That  is  always  the  way,"  he  raged.  "Nothing  but  at 
tempts  at  assassination.  That  girl  came  to  me  frenzied, 
burst  into  tears  before  she  could  speak,  and  her  first  utter 
ance  was: 

"  '  He  ought  to  be  shot !    He  ought  to  be  shot ! ' 

"She  repeated  that  half  a  hundred  times  before  I  could 
quiet  her  sufficiently  to  induce  her  to  begin  her  story. 
When  I  had  heard  it,  I  told  her  that  it  was  for  me  to  judge 
what  his  punishment  ought  to  be,  if  he  was  indeed  guilty. 
She  fairly  chittered  at  me  for  doubting  his  guilt,  and  when 
I  told  her  that,  if  guilty,  he  should  be  punished  severely, 
certainly  flogged  in  public,  she  replied : 

"  'He  ought  to  be  shot/ 

' '  I  did  order  him  shot,  and  here  is  the  outcome :  she  tries 
to  assassinate  me  for  having  done  exactly  what  she  asked 
for.  That  is  always  the  way :  give  them  what  they  ask,  sus 
pend  judgment,  refuse,  all  three  lead  to  the  same  requital: 
it  is  always  attempted  assassination." 

He  broke  off,  stared  a  moment,  and  asked  in  an  altered 
tone: 

' '  Did  you  realise  that  you  were  being  attacked  by  mistake 
forme?" 

"At  first,"  Hawthorne  answered,  "I  did  not  realise  any 
thing.  Then  for  a  moment  I  thought  you  had  laid  a  trap 
for  me.  Then  I  perceived  the  truth." 

"And  it  was  only  night  before  last,"  the  Dictator  said, 
"that  I,  alone,  unlocked  that  door  in  the  dark.  And  I  am 
not  young  like  you,  nor  quick,  nor  have  I  learnt  English 
boxing.  I  should  be  a  dead  man  had  she  leapt  at  me. ' ' 

His  tone  altered  again. 

"Selfish  creature  that  I  am!"  he  exclaimed.  "I  talk  of 
myself  instead  of  binding  up  your  arm. ' ' 

"  It  is  a  mere  scratch, ' '  Hawthorne  demurred. 

"All  the  same,"  Francia  retorted,  "it  will  be  the  better 
for  a  sousing  with  Guarani  eye-lotion." 


THE   CONVENTION  555 

He  went  to  the  bufete  and  extracted  a  bottle  and  some 
rolls  of  old  linen.  As  he  dressed  the  arm,  he  talked. 

"Always  the  same,"  he  repeated,  "always  attempted  as 
sassination.  It  is  getting  on  my  nerves.  So  far,  I  sleep 
well,  I  eat  well,  I  can  entertain  an  armed  man  as  I  enter 
tain  you.  But  at  times  I  am  moved  to  ask  you  to  lay  aside 
your  belt  and  hanger :  the  sight  of  a  weapon  on  another  man 
gives  me  the  creeps.  It  is  growing  on  me.  I  feel  it.  By 
and  by  I  shall  give  way  to  it.  I  know  that  well." 

And  he  talked  along  in  the  same  strain  of  his  past  in 
difference  to  danger  and  his  increasing  physical  alarms. 

"For  I  feel  no  intellectual  fear  of  death  or  of  weapons," 
he  caveated. 

When  the  dressing  was  finished  and  they  were  seated,  he 
said: 

"Now  show  me  the  line." 

Hawthorne  turned  over  the  leaves  and  presently  said : 

"I  almost  recalled  the  number  of  the  line.  It  is  1286,  in 
the  treatise  on  syllables,  near  the  end,  just  before  the 
treatise  on  feet.  It  is  a  sort  of  epilogue  to  the  former  or 
preface  to  the  latter.  A  noble  passage,  too,  in  many  re 
spects. " 

And  he  read : 

"Deses  et  impatiens  nimis  haec  olscura  putabit: 
Pro  captu  lectoris  habent  sua  fata  libetti." 

1  'A  lazy  and  hasty  man/  "  Francia  translated,  "  'will 
think  all  this  too  murky :  books  have  their  fates  according 
to  the  capacity  of  the  reader. '  ' ' 

He  took  the  book  Hawthorne  held  out  to  him,  read 
the  whole  passage  aloud,  translated  it  aloud,  and  re 
marked  : 

"111  for  ten  months  and  whiling  away  his  time  writing 
about  versification !  Wonderful  man !  And  he  wrote  that 
line." 

Hawthorne  said  nothing. 

"I  own  myself  beaten,"  Francia  acknowledged.  "You 
were  right;  you  always  are,  as  I  am  always  a  target  for 
assassins." 

He  sighed  and  resumed : 

"Have  you  heard  of  Don  Medardo  Bustamente  ? " 


556  EL   SUPREMO 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  confessed.  "I  heard  all  people  could 
tell  me,  which  was  not  much." 

' '  Then  hear  some  of  what  I  can  tell, ' '  the  Dictator  pref 
aced.  "That,  at  least,  will  be  more." 

He  sighed  again. 

"Among  the  acquaintances  I  made  at  college,"  he  nar 
rated,  "among  my  associates  at  Cordova,  among  my  com 
panions  and  cronies,  by  far  the  most  charming  was  Me- 
dardo.  To  begin  with,  he  was  almost  the  handsomest  lad 
among  us.  Besides,  he  was  nearly  the  leading  student; 
excelling  easily  in  all  studies,  yet  never  seeming  to  work, 
never  sitting  late  at  night  over  his  books,  never  rising  early 
in  the  morning  to  con  his  tasks,  always  appearing  idle, 
indolent,  and  at  leisure;  always  with  a  smile  on  his  face; 
always  with  time  and  inclination  to  listen  to  any  friend,  to 
lend  himself  to  any  suggestion,  to  take  part  in  any  jollity. 
He  was  a  fluent  speaker,  yet  never  talked  about  himself, 
and  was  a  most  sympathetic  listener.  The  impulse  to  con 
fide  in  Medardo  was,  in  fact,  almost  irresistible.  He  ab 
sorbed  himself  so  completely  in  one 's  hopes  and  fears,  wor 
ries  and  aspirations,  said  always  just  the  right  thing  when 
he  did  speak,  was  mute  so  naturally  and  seemed  so  intent 
on  what  one  told  him,  that  he  became  an  intimate  almost  at 
once.  He  was  not  only  a  good  talker  and  a  better  listener, 
but  he  was  one  of  those  rare  souls  who  need  neither  talk 
nor  listen  but  are  companionable  through  their  mere  pres 
ence.  In  all  these  respects  he  was  much  like  Beltran.  But 
I  was  younger  then  and  more  impressionable. 

"He  was  a  Bustamente  of  Mexico,  of  a  family  colossally 
wealthy  through  the  ownership  of  fabulously  productive 
gold  mines.  Also  he  was  the  eleventh  of  his  mother's  twen 
ty-two  sons.  One  divined  that  he  had  fallen  in  love  at  an 
unseemly  boyish  age  with  the  daughter  of  some  enemy  of 
the  family  and  that  that  was  the  reason  why  he  had  trav 
elled  to  Lima  to  sojourn  with  one  of  his  mother's  kinsmen, 
an  official  of  the  Viceroy's  government.  It  appeared  that 
a  second  unfortunate  love-affair  or  affair  of  gallantry  had 
been  the  cause  of  his  relegation  from  Lima  to  Cordova  de 
Tucuman,  where  another  of  his  mother's  kinsmen  was  an 
ecclesiastic  in  high  standing.  Medardo  entered  into  the 
life  of  the  University  and  of  the  town  as  if  Cordova  had 
been  the  largest  and  gayest  city  he  had  ever  lived  in.  No 


THE   CONVENTION  557 

student  was  richer,  for  an  unlimited  allowance  to  a  son  on 
his  travels  was  nothing  to  the  Bustamentes,  to  whom  it 
would  have  mattered  no  more  had  all  the  twenty-two 
brothers  gone  wandering  at  once,  each  for  himself  and 
each  scattering  douhloons  by  the  handful.  Scatter  his 
gold  Medardo  never  did,  but  spend  it  and  lend  he  did  and 
with  a  lavish  hand. 

"To  avoid  his  loans  required  almost  superhuman  se- 
cretiveness  and  self-control.  He  disarmed  one's  caution, 
divined  one's  needs,  and  before  his  genial  smile  one's 
pride  and  scruples  vanished.  Without  saying  anything, 
he  made  one  feel  as  if  he  had  said: 

11  'What,  you  in  need,  and  have  not  asked  me  for  help? 
For  shame!  You  would  share  your  last  media  with  me, 
and  you  know  it.  So  would  I  with  you,  so  should  I,  with 
as  good  a  friend  as  you  are.' 

"And  at  the  same  time  it  was  as  if  he  had  also  said: 

"  'What  is  money  to  a  Bustamente?  Take  the  whole 
bag  of  doubloons.  It  is  merely  as  if  I  were  eating  an 
orange  and  broke  it  in  halves,  one  half  for  me  and  one  for 
you.  To  me  a  bag  of  doubloons  is  no  more  than  half  an 
orange.  And  who  would  hesitate  to  accept  half  an 
orange  from  a  close  friend?' 

"Such   was   Medardo. 

"I  was  weak,  I  suppose.  At  all  events,  I  was  young, 
I  was  imprudent.  At  one  time  I  should  have  been  expelled 
in  disgrace  from  the  University  and  from  Cordova  had  I 
not  succeeded  in  hushing  up  a  youthful  escapade.  With-* 
out  Medardo 's  gold  it  could  never  have  been  kept  secret. 
At  another  time,  for  a  long  time  indeed,  I  should  have 
starved  to  death  but  for  Medardo 's  generosity. 

"And  what  was  more,  never  did  I  feel  embarrassed  by 
my  obligations  to  him,  not  merely  when  alone  and  meditat 
ing  on  my  difficulties,  but  not  even  when  with  him.  He 
was  all  the  grandee  in  dress,  manners,  and  prodigality ;  but 
he  was  as  unaffected  and  spontaneous  as  the  poorest  stu 
dent  of  us  all. 

"Most  amazing  of  all,  though  I  paid  to  the  last  maravedi 
every  debt  I  owed,  paid  them  a  peso  at  a  time,  some  of  them, 
though  I  rejoiced  when  the  last  debt  was  extinguished, 
principal  and  interest,  and  my  slow  savings  from  my  pro 
fession  began  at  last  to  form  for  me  the  nucleus  of  a  prop- 


558 


EL   SUPREMO 


erty ;  yet  it  never  concerned  me  that  I  owed  more  to  Me- 
dardo  than  to  all  my  other  creditors  put  together,  never* 
worried  me  that  I  knew  not  so  much  as  whether  he  was  dead 
or  alive,  or,  if  alive,  in  what  part  of  the  earth  he  might 
be. 

' '  You  can  imagine  with  what  alacrity,  the  instant  I  heard 
he  was  in  Asuncion  and  wholly  destitute,  I  hastened  to  re 
lieve  his  necessities,  to  requite  some  part  of  his  former  good 
ness  to  me.  You  can  hardly  imagine  the  pleasure  it  gave 
me :  in  taking  as  in  giving  he  was  the  same  lordly,  ingenu 
ous  being,  every  inch  a  Bustamente. 

"You  can  conjecture  easily  what  pleasure  his  company 
gave  me.  I  was  continually  congratulating  myself  on  my 
luck.  After  long  isolation,  I  had  within  a  twelvemonth 
become  richer  by  you,  Beltran  and  Medardo. 

"I  trusted  him  completely,  never  thought  of  suspecting 
him,  and  was  never  on  guard  against  him. 

1 '  My  rashness  all  but  cost  me  my  life. 

4 'We  were  playing  chess  and  had  sat  long  over  a  slow, 
hard-fought  game.  It  ended  oddly,  each  with  both  bishops 
and  not  another  piece,  each  with  three  pawns.  It  was 
totally  uncertain  which  would  win  or  whether  we  should 
come  to  a  draw.  I  had  the  move,  and  was  puzzled.  He 
Went  to  the  water-jar,  and  I  heard  him  drink  three  glasses 
in  succession.  Then  he  came  on  round  the  big  table.  He 
had  often  done  that  before.  But  something  in  the  quality 
fcf  his  footfall  made  me  turn. 

*  *  I  was  barely  in  time ;  I  just  did  parry  his  thrust. 

"Now  conceive  my  position.  I  should  have  starved  to 
lleath  at  Cordova  but  for  him.  I  cannot  have  him  shot. 
Every  day  and  hour  I  reproach  myself  for  keeping  him  in 
a  dungeon.  Yet  I  dare  not  set  him  at  liberty. 

"I  am  tormented  with  questions  I  cannot  answer. 

' '  Was  the  story  true,  and  was  his  coming  here  a  series  of 
accidents?  If  so,  who  in  Asuncion  egged  him  on  to  turn 
on  me  ?  Or  was  it  all  a  plot  from  the  start  ?  If  so,  how  did 
the  plotters  enlist  the  Payaguas?  How  could  any  one 
wheedle  or  cajole  Payaguas  into  so  complex  a  piece  of  act 
ing  ?  And  was  it  a  plot  of  Ramirez  alone  with  Medardo,  or 
of  Ramirez  at  Artigas'  own  suggestion?  Don  Gcrvasio  has 
hitherto  been  scrupulously  fair  towards  me,  ai».d  I  shall  so 
believe  him,  unless  proof  of  the  contrary  is  irrefragable. 


THE   CONVENTION  559 

Or  was  it  a  plot  of  Ramirez  and  Perrichon,  with  or  without 
Artigas  ?  It  is  all  very  confusing  and  maddening. 

"Meanwhile,  my  duty  is  to  keep  him  in  duress,  whereas 
my  inclination  is  all  the  other." 

He  sighed  again. 

Hawthorne  said  nothing,  and  Francia  resumed,  in  a  tone 
very  different : 

"I  know  where  to  find  that  octoroon  girl.  She  shall  be 
one  of  the  first  batch  of  colonists  at  Tevego." 

Yet  again  he  sighed. 

His  manner  changed. 

1  *  I  think, ' '  he  said,  matter-of-f actly,  ' '  you  might  as  well 
wait  until  after  the  convention  to  visit  Caacupe  and  Atira. 
Neither  iron  nor  i/er&a-settings  will  run  away.  And  you 
will  report  on  both  plenty  soon  enough. ' ' 

(2) 

By  the  beginning  of  May  the  deputies  to  the  third  con 
vention  or  congress,  as  it  was  variously  and  indiscrimi 
nately  called,  had  begun  to  pour  into  Asuncion  from  every 
direction.  A  few  came  up  the  river  by  slow  and  uncertain 
navigation  against  the  current  from  the  riverside  towns 
about  Curupaiti,  Neembucu,  and  Herredura ;  from  the  mias 
matic  levels  about  Umbu  and  Tacauras ;  or  from  the  dirty 
villages  and  poverty-stricken  hamlets  that  lay  between 
them.  These  were  representatives  of  the  costeros,  the  shore- 
dwellers,  eaters  of  fish,  parched  maize  and  mani  nuts,  the 
ague-stricken  fishermen  and  lumbermen  of  the  stream- 
intersected,  swampy,  heavily-wooded  strip  of  marshland  be 
tween  the  uplands  and  the  lower  reaches  of  the  River  Para 
guay.  They  had  recourse  to  the  river  to  convey  them  to 
Asuncion,  because  very  few  of  them  owned  horses  fit  for  a 
long  journey  or  had  money  enough  to  hire  post-horses. 
They  were  wild-looking  men,  of  savage  appearance  and 
rude  manners,  barefoot,  bare-legged,  clad  only  in  a  chiripd 
and  a  poncho,  with  a  small  round  hat,  decked  with  greasy 
ribbons,  jammed  down  tight  on  each  one's  head. 

More  than  a  hundred  representatives  came  down  the 
river,  the  easiest  and  quickest  way  of  access  to  Asuncion 
from  San  Carlos,  Villa  Real,  Quarepoti,  and  the  other  river 
side  towns,  and  from  villages  or  hamlets  of  the  interior  of 


560  EL   SUPREMO 

Paraguay,  such  as  Manumby,  Estanislao,  Yquamandiu,  Be- 
len,  San  Ignacio  and  Voquita. 

But  most  of  the  deputies,  fully  eight  hundred  of  them, 
came  on  horseback,  all  with  runners  afoot  in  attendance  and 
some  few  with  mounted  henchmen. 

There  were  among  these  semi-martial  swaggerers  from 
beyond  the  River  Parana  in  upper  Missiones,  Gaucho  herd 
ers  of  Laureta,  San  Carlos,  Corpus  or  Apostoles,  almost 
Artiguenos  in  appearance  and  behaviour.  They  rode 
proudly,  their  bare  toes  sticking  out  of  home-made  potro 
boots ;  their  calves  bare  above  them ;  their  fringed  cambric 
drawers  flapping  below  their  knees;  their  chiripds  coarse 
and  rough;  their  waistcoats  tawdry  with  soiled  and  tar 
nished  silver-lace  and  gaudy  green  and  yellow  embroider 
ies;  their  bronzed  throats  sinewy  and  corded  at  the  open 
collars  of  their  dust-stained,  sweated  shirts ;  their  blue  jack 
ets  flapping,  displaying  red  facings,  cuffs  and  flaps;  their 
hair  thick  and  matted  under  old  foraging  caps. 

With  them  others  from  southernmost  Paraguay  along 
the  Parana  on  its  north  bank :  men  of  Laureles,  San  Cosme, 
Nacuti,  Barboa  or  Trinidad,  dressed  like  their  fierce  com 
patriots  from  across  the  river,  but  wearing  hats  instead  of 
caps,  less  shaggy  of  eyebrows  and  milder  of  gaze. 

There  were  country  gentlemen  and  country  yeomen  from 
the  interior;  some  even  from  far  Motas,  Forquilha  and 
Minangua,  more  from  such  mid-country  villages  as  Yuty, 
Ytay,  Tacuava,  Tabapi  and  Curuguatay.  Their  potro  boots 
were  seldom  finished  by  any  cobbler's  stitching  and  mostly 
showed  the  owners'  ten  toes  like  those  of  the  cross-river 
herdsmen  ;  but  they  one  and  all  boasted,  wore  and  displayed 
great  jingling  silver  spurs.  Long  fringed  and  embroidered 
drawers  of  astonishingly  fine  cambric,  very  wide  and  ample, 
hanging  to  the  ankles ;  knee  breeches  of  worn,  often  thread 
bare  velvet,  sometimes  green,  blue  or  yellow,  but  generally 
a  deep  brownish  crimson;  short  waistcoats  sewn  with  tiny 
silver  spangles,  or  with  polished  silver  sequins ;  white  jack 
ets,  usually  of  dimity,  exceedingly  short  and  extremely 
tight:  such  were  the  clothes  these  squires  and  landholders 
mostly  wore.  Most  of  them  added  as  a  finishing  touch  and 
display  of  patriotic  sentiment  a  gleaming  silk  sash,  of  that 
brilliant  harsh  blue  which  had  somehow  become  associated 
with  the  victory  at  Paraguary,  Belgrano's  capitulation,  in- 


THE   CONVENTION  561 

dependence,  self-reliance,  and  similar  patriotic  reminis 
cences  or  aspirations. 

From  all  parts  of  the  country  came  many  traders,  petti 
fogging  lawyers,  yerbateros,  and  shopkeepers;  and  more 
curates,  all  in  black,  with  shovel-hats,  and  riding  on  mules. 

But  by  far  the  majority  of  the  deputies  were  Tape  In 
dians.  Perhaps  a  third  of  these  were  completely  Hispani- 
cised  Guaranies:  small  landowners,  hardly  to  be  distin 
guished  in  appearance  or  behaviour  from  chacareros  or 
estancieros  of  Catalan  or  Castilian  extraction;  curates  or 
friars,  educated  at  the  University  of  Cordova  de  Tucuman, 
scarcely  darker  of  complexion  than  many  an  Andalusian, 
similar  in  all  respects  to  the  run  of  country  curates  o* 
town  monks ;  graziers  from  lonely  districts,  like  as  possible 
to  the  generality  of  pampas  Gauchos. 

The  remaining  two  thirds  were  alcaldes  of  tiny  villages  or 
of  small  towns.  These  amounted  to  fully  half  of  the 
mounted  deputies,  and  had  each  ten  or  twelve  dependents, 
so  that  there  were  crowded  into  Asuncion  or  camped  about 
it  retinues  aggregating  something  like  forty-five  hundred 
souls  with  the  four  hundred  Tape  alcaldes.  Mayors,  alder 
men  or  villagers,  every  man  of  them  was  heart  and  soul 
(minds  they  had  none ;  not  a  trace  among  the  five  thousand 
of  them)  vowed  and  devoted  to  and  sullenly  enthusiastic 
for  Carai  Francia,  the  poor  man's  hope,  the  plain  man's 
friend,  the  protector  of  the  lowly,  the  defender  of  the  op 
pressed,  the  councillor  of  the  perplexed,  the  all-wise,  all- 
prudent,  forever  mysterious  All-Powerful. 

All  the  Tapes  and  half  the  Gauchos,  graziers,  herdsmen, 
wood-cutters,  2/er5&-gatherers,  small-farmers,  land-owners 
and  estancieros  were  completely  and  uncompromisingly  for 
the  dread  Doctor.  They  were  earnestly  and  outspokenly  in 
favour  of  creating  him  life-Dictator  without  preliminary 
discussion ;  of  dismissing  all  questions  of  finance,  trade, 
religion  and  defence,  and  leaving  El  Supremo  to  settle 
everything.  The  eighty  deputies  from  the  capital  were 
completely  swamped  by  numbers,  could  not  make  their 
views  gain  a  hearing  in  the  long  weeks  of  haphazard  cau- 
cussing  which  preceded  the  meeting  of  the  convention. 
Shop-keepers,  traders,  merchants,  lawyers,  ecclesiastics, 
generals  and  ex-officials  felt  themselves  submerged  and  ef 
faced  in  a  rising  tide  and  accelerating  flood  of  confidence 


562  EL   SUPREMO 

in  the  successful  peacemaker,  economical  administrator,  ac 
ceptable  lawgiver,  and  impartial  judge;  of  dogged,  mute, 
unalterable  resolve  to  exalt  and  obey  him. 

Helpless  to  persuade  and  incapable  of  opposition,  they 
could  only  look  on.  Day  after  day  and  a  score  of  times  a 
day,  in  the  early  coolness,  in  the  full  warmth  of  the  morn 
ing,  in  the  sluggish  heat  of  the  late  afternoon,  even  in  the 
dazzling  glare  of  noontide,  the  same  scene  would  be  enacted 
and  re-enacted  before  their  eyes.  Day  after  day  its  signifi 
cance  sank  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  consciousness  of  all 
inhabitants  of  Asuncion. 

The  sound  of  squealing  flutes  and  screaming  fifes  would 
make  itself  heard  in  the  Market  Square.  From  between  the 
Palacio  and  the  Cabildo,  if  it  came  across  the  bridge  over 
the  Riachuelo,  having  started  from  the  camping-groves 
south-west  of  the  suburban  barracks ;  from  the  narrow  open 
ing  where  Calle  Concepcion  broke  the  long  line  of  shop- 
fronts  on  Calle  Comercio,  if  it  came  from  the  suburbs  south 
of  the  Convent  of  Mercy;  or  down  the  Calle  Comercio  it 
self,  past  the  squat  flank  of  the  Cathedral,  if  it  came  from 
beyond  the  Franciscan  Monastery  towards  Itapua,  the 
procession  entered  the  Plaza. 

First  came  two,  four  or  even  six  peons  on  foot,  bare- 
foote'd,  bare-legged  and  with  no  visible  clothing  save  each 
a  long,  rain-faded,  threadbare  poncho  and  a  narrow- 
brimmed,  saucer-crowned  hat,  decked  with  hideously  gar 
ish  ribbons.  Behind  them  the  musicians,  peons  also  and 
dressed  like  peons,  blowing  vigorously  on  their  tuneless  and 
discordant  pipes,  flageolets  or  oboes.  Then  two  running- 
pages,  likely  enough  with  red  handkerchiefs  knotted  round 
their  greasy,  crow-black,  lank  hair,  their  ponchos  a  shade 
better  than  those  of  the  peons,  each  holding  the  end  of  a 
long  lariat  ringed  to  the  bit  of  their  master 's  charger,  keep 
ing  wide  apart  and  well  before  him.  Their  leading  strings 
were  the  merest  formality  of  ceremonial,  for  no  horse  that 
ever  existed  would  dare  take  liberties  with  a  Tape  rider. 
Yet  the  Alcalde  felt  that  they  added  to  his  dignity. 

Behind  him  rode  two  or  four  or  even  eight  friends,  kins 
men  or  brother-alcaldes,  whom  he  had  perhaps  similarly 
attended  and  honoured  yesterday  or  the  day  before,  or 
might  attend  to-morrow. 

But  the  feature  of  the  procession  was  the  Alcalde  him- 


THE   CONVENTION  563 

eelf.  His  horse  was  almost  concealed  by  the  streaming  and 
fluttering  ribbons  knotted  on  his  combed  and  braided  tail, 
on  the  buckles  of  the  saddle-crupper,  on  the  studs  of  his 
bridle,  on  his  mane  and  on  the  peaks  and  horns  of  the 
ancient  and  honourable  saddle,  still  visibly  covered  with 
What  had  once  been  green  or  blue  or  crimson  velvet.  As 
the  fifes  shrieked  the  horse  pranced  to  the  time,  minced 
with  his  fore-feet,  caracoled  and  half  reared,  dancing  along 
after  the  local  fashion. 

His  rider  jingled  the  great  silver  spurs  he  never  used, 
displaying  the  silver  buckles  of  his  low  shoes,  often  of  the 
iridescent  bronze  morocco  leather  adored  by  all  Paraguay 
ans.  His  silk  hose  were  likely  enough  obviously  darned  and 
sadly  in  need  of  washing,  but  his  silver  garter-buckles 
gleamed  and  the  ribbon  tags  of  his  crimson  garters  flut 
tered  gaily.  The  ruffles  of  his  wide-ended,  much-embroid 
ered  drawers  were  sure  to  be  dazzlingly  clean  and  white, 
and  his  black  velvet  breeches  were  always  open  at  the  knees, 
their  rows  of  eight  or  ten  little  silver  buttons  never  by  any 
chance  having  touched  the  silk-edged  buttonholes  since  the 
breeches  were  made.  Their  sable  hue  set  off  his  scarlet  silk 
sash,  rolled  and  twisted  over  his  white  shirt  front,  under 
his  black  velvet  jacket,  from  the  shoulder  knot  of  which,  as 
from  his  cocked  hat,  streamed  ribbons  like  those  of  his  gar 
ter-knots  and  those  all  over  his  horse,  some  red  and  blue, 
but  most  of  that  squalling  yellow  or  unendurable  pink 
Which  appealed  irresistibly  to  the  hearts  of  all  Tapes. 

Very  stiff  and  erect  the  Alcalde  held  himself  on  his  cara 
coling  mount,  fixedly  he  stared  ahead  between  the  animal's 
pricked-up  ears,  with  all  possible  dignity  he  made  his  de 
liberate  way  across  the  length  of  the  Market  Plaza,  past 
the  front  of  the  Cabildo,  to  the  southwest  corner,  where  El 
Supremo's  mirador  commanded  the  Plaza.  On  that  bal 
cony  was  set  his  curule  chair :  in  it  he  sat  with  two  at  least 
of  his  Cabinet  and  secretaries  by  him,  respectfully  stand 
ing;  perhaps  Don  Basilio  and  Don  Andres;  perhaps  Bel- 
tran  with  Don  Olegario. 

When  the  procession  was  but  a  few  horse-lengths  from 
the  window  below  the  mirador,  Francia  invariably  stood 
up,  displaying  himself  to  the  reverential  gaze  of  the  Tape 
Alcalde  and  his  followers.  On  some  days,  perhaps  once  a 
week,  he  wore  the  white  stockings  and  breeches  and  long, 


564  EL    SUPREMO 

red-faced,  blue  coat  of  a  general  in  chief,  his  hair  pow 
dered  and  queued  under  a  cockaded,  cocked  hat;  oftener 
he  wore  his  long  sable  locks  falling  in  natural  ringlets,  him 
self  from  hat  to  shoes  all  in  the  sombre  black  of  a  doctor 
of  laws,  the  garb  in  which  his  adherents  most  loved  to  see 
him,  in  which  he  was  to  them  the  embodiment  of  deep,  uni 
versal,  limitless  wisdom,  of  infinite,  unfathomable  occult 
knowledge,  of  mysterious,  incommunicable  powers,  of  veiled 
inscrutable  will. 

Before  the  vision  of  his  worshipped  leader,  the  Alcalde 
reined  in  his  horse,  raised  with  his  left  hand  the  brass- 
headed,  silver-headed,  or  even,  if  he  was  of  a  very  impor 
tant  town,  the  gold-headed  cane  like  a  drum-major's  baton, 
his  badge  of  office;  with  his  right,  his  ancient  three-cor 
nered  cocked  hat,  which  he  had  much  ado  to  disentangle 
from  the  equally  antique  red  or  brown  wig  without  which 
he  would  not  have  felt  decently  apparelled. 

Again  and  again  he  thus  saluted  Carai  Francia.  The 
Dictator,  his  stern  face  relaxed  ever  so  little  into  his  re 
served,  yet  winning  smile,  bowed  in  return.  Behind  him, 
maybe,  Don  Policarpo  Patinos  loomed  vulture-wise  on  one 
side  and  Don  Gumesindo  Estagarribia  bulged  obesely  on 
the  other. 

Fairly  quivering  with  joy  as  they  beheld  the  supreme 
Doctor  acknowledge  their  master's  salute,  the  musicians 
redoubled  their  shrill  cacophonies.  As  the  music  sharp 
ened  the  steed  curveted  anew  and  unceasingly.  Bolt  up 
right  upon  his  caracoling  mount  all  the  Tape's  pride  of 
horsemanship  was  then  concentrated  upon  making  his  re 
treat  backwards  or  with  sidelong  passagings,  keeping  his 
face  more  or  less  towards  Carai  Francia  until  he  consid 
ered  himself  at  a  respectful  distance. 

Some  four  hundred  Tape  Alcaldes,  each  eager  to  show 
himself  off,  each  more  eager  to  exhibit  his  loyalty  for  the 
Carai,  kept  Asuncion  surfeited  with  processions,  and  im 
pressed  thoroughly  upon  the  city  deputies  that  they  were 
and  would  be  in  a  hopeless  minority. 


EL   PERPETUO  565 


CHAPTER    XL 

EL  PERPETUO 

THE  day  set  for  the  meeting  came.  Soon  after  sunrise 
the  deputies  began  to  congregate  towards  the  Cathe 
dral  and  gathered,  first  under  its  porch;  then,  when  they 
had  filled  that,  in  the  shade  of  its  front  and  of  the  long 
side  away  from  the  sun ;  later  even  in  the  full  sunshine  of 
the  Plaza ;  while  a  few,  lazier  than  the  most,  lolled  in  chairs 
and  sipped  mate  under  the  corridors  of  the  shops  along 
Calle  Comercio. 

When  some  six  hundred  had  assembled  it  was  announced 
from  the  middle  door  of  the  Cathedral  porch  by  Don 
Gumesindo  Estagarribia  himself,  in  his  most  orotund  tones, 
that  a  "sola"  was  present;  by  which,  he  explained,  ha 
meant  a  "house";  or,  in  other  words,  a  quorum,  that  wa* 
to  say,  a  number  of  deputies  sufficient  to  warrant  the  com 
mencement  of  proceedings;  in  short,  a  large  enough  pro^ 
portion  of  the  representatives  to  justify  calling  the  conven 
tion  to  order. 

Into  the  Cathedral  the  delegates  trooped  and  seated 
themselves  on  the  benches  provided  for  the  occasion ;  or,  in 
the  case  of  those  who  felt  themselves  and  were  considered 
by  their  fellows  more  important  than  the  rest,  on  the  hun 
dred  or  two  new,  plain  chairs  disposed  towards  the  sanctu 
ary-rail  in  front  of  the  benches. 

The  public  were  not  excluded.  After  the  deputies  any 
and  every  man  who  could  squeeze  in  was  free  to  enter, 
watch  and  listen,  to  lean  against  the  walls  or  stand  any 
where  in  the  open  spaces  on  either  side  of  the  delegates  or 
towards  the  church-doors.  Among  the  commonality  the 
barefoot,  ponchoed  peons  were  far  too  timid  to  thrust  them 
selves  upon  their  betters,  and  remained  outside  the  church 
altogether ;  under  the  porch  gathered  some  knots  of  country 
squires  or  moderately  well-to-do  townsmen;  into  the  nave 
after  the  deputies  flocked  some  two  hundred  spectators, 
Orrego,  Pai  Mbatu,  El  Zapo  and  other  such  semi-public 
characters  remaining  near  the  doors;  better  dressed  men 
and  unimportant  gentlemen  in  the  space  behind  the  chairs ; 
and  along  the  walls  as  more  than  interested  onlookers  the 


566  EL   SUPREMO 

ex-generals  and  colonels  who  were  not  delegates,  a  doctor 
or  two  besides  Don  Arsenio  Dominguez  and  plump  Don 
Fruetuoso  Baiguer;  some  capitalists,  among  them  Don 
Meliton  Isasi,  with  them  Don  Bermudo  Larreta,  his  bald 
head  shining,  and  Dr.  Bargas;  on  the  other  side  of  the 
nave  the  younger  Mayorgas,  Don  Gil  Komero,  Don  Ar- 
turo  Balaguer  and  Hawthorne.  To  Hawthorne,  instead  of 
to  Dr.  Bargas,  Surgeon  Parlett  had  attached  himself.  He 
was  fully  semi-sober  and  in  his  best  vein  of  running  com 
ment. 

Immediately  before  the  sanctuary-railing  a  platform  had 
been  constructed.  Midway  of  its  front  stood  a  table  of 
moderate  size,  on  which  was  a  little  silver  bell.  Behind 
this  table  was  placed  the  Dictator 's  official  arm-chair.  Right 
and  left  of  it  were  disposed  ordinary  arm-chairs,  and  be- 
yond  them,  at  either  front  corner  of  the  platform,  was  & 
small  table  and  a  plain  armless  chair,  one  for  each  of  the 
two  secretaries,  who  were  already  in  position  before  th* 
deputies  entered  the  church. 

When  the  delegates  were  seated,  the  cabinet  of  the  Die- 
tator  entered  and  occupied  the  arm-chairs,  Don  Gumesindo 
on  the  right  of  the  curule  chair,  Don  Olegario  on  the  left, 
Don  Basilio  next  him  and  then  Don  Lorenzo;  while  to  the 
right  of  Estagarribia  sat  Bishop  Evaristo  de  Panes  and  by 
him  Don  Bernardo  Velasco.  These  two  worthies  entered 
together,  side  by  side ;  and,  when  the  delegates  beheld  them, 
the  entire  assemblange  rose  and  stood  in  profound  silence 
while  they  proceeded  to  the  chairs  reserved  for  them. 

Last  of  all,  and  after  some  little  interval,  the  Dictator 
entered.  At  the  rumour  of  his  approach  heads  had  craned 
round  over  shoulders  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  door;  at 
first  sight  of  him  every  deputy  stood  up. 

There  was  a  subtle,  a  scarcely  analysable  difference  be- 
tween  the  spiritual  atmosphere  pervading  the  church  whilw 
Francia  passed  up  the  nave  and  that  which  had  been  felt 
while  the  Bishop  and  ex-Intendente  advanced  to  their 
places.  As  Hawthorne  formulated  to  himself  his  im 
pressions,  in  the  former  case  commiseration  and  rever 
ence,  in  the  latter  admiration  and  av/e  mingled  with 
respect. 

When  Francia  had  taken  his  place  he  rang  his  bell.  In 
the  deep  Bilence  he  stood  up  and  spoke: 


EL   PERPETUO  567 

"Seriors,"  he  said,  "when  I  was  Consul  and  summoned: 
the  convention  which  three  years  ago  elected  nie  Dictator 
for  that  term,  I  did  not  preside  over  the  sessions  of  that 
assembly  nor  so  much  as  enter  this  building  during  its 
deliberations;  of  which  I  know  only  what  I  learned  by 
report.  Though  during  its  continuance  no  hint  of  any 
such  coercion  reached  my  ears,  not  long  after  its  adjourn 
ment  I  heard  rumours  that  my  adherents  not  merely  swayed 
and  controlled  the  progress  of  debate,  but  dominated  the 
assembly  and  overawed  the  delegates,  practically  browbeat 
ing  my  adversaries  into  silence  and  forcing  unanimous 
votes  endorsing  all  their  proposals  without  any  discussion 
whatever. 

' '  I  have  chosen  to  preside  over  your  meetings  to  make  it 
certain  that  no  such  complaints  are  uttered  by  making  sure 
that  no  such  foul  play  occurs.  I  mean  to  convince  all 
Paraguay  of  my  impartiality  by  sending  you  all  away  from 
each  of  your  meetings,  and  in  particular  from  the  last 
meeting,  satisfied  that  I  have  shown  partiality  to  no  one 
and  to  myself  least  of  all. 

"As  evidence  of  my  impartiality  you  have  only  to  look 
about  you  and  recognise  many  of  my  lifelong  and  irrecon 
cilable  political  and  personal  adversaries,  whose  presence 
here  is  already  known  to  you,  since  their  selection  as  depu 
ties  has  been  notorious  weeks  in  advance.  While  I  have, 
naturally,  excluded  from  this  assembly  all  traitors  overt  or 
covert,  all  agitators  whose  methods  have  been  treacherous, 
and  the  most  flagrant  of  those  habitual  conspirators  who- 
disgrace  our  Paraguayan  manhood,  I  have  included  in  this? 
convention  every  one  of  my  individual  enemies  and  party 
antagonists  whose  opposition  has  been  open,  manly  and  fair, 
even  if  ill-advised,  no  matter  how  vigorous  it  has  been,  no 
matter  how  distasteful  to  me. 

"As  further  evidence  of  my  more  than  impartial  behav 
iour  towards  the  old  Spaniards  and  the  semi-Spanish  Cre 
oles,  I  wish  to  speak  of  the  constitution  of  this  body  and 
of  the  allotment  of  delegates  between  the  city  and  the 
country  districts.  The  population  of  all  Paraguay  is  about 
two  hundred  thousand  souls.  The  number  of  deputies  com 
posing  this  convention  is,  as  you  all  know,  one  thousand. 
That  would  assign  one  representative  to  each  two  hundred 
persons  throughout  the  republic.  Since  there  are  about 


568  EL   SUPREMO 

ten  thousand  persons  in  the  capital,  Asuncion  would  there 
fore  have  a  right  to  about  fifty  delegates. 

"Now,  as  is  well  known,  the  country  districts  contain  a 
larger  proportion  of  my  personal  admirers  and  enthusiastic 
adherents,  while  the  city  harbours  nearly  all  my  enemies, 
antagonists  and  adversaries.  It  would,  therefore,  be  to  my 
advantage  to  give  Asuncion  as  few  deputies  as  possible  and 
the  rest  of  Paraguay  as  many  as  possible.  ^Yet  I  have 
reflected  that  Asuncion  contains  a  large  majority  of  all  the 
educated  and  intellectual  men  of  the  entire  country.  There 
fore,  I  have  judged  it  fair  and  just  to  increase  the  propor 
tion  of  delegates  of  Asuncion  so  as  to  give  the  capital  one 
representative  for  every  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  in 
habitants,  which  allots  to  the  rest  of  Paraguay  one  repre 
sentative  for  every  two  hundred  and  six  individuals.  I 
have  thus  diminished  somewhat  the  numbers  of  the  dele 
gates  who  are  likely  to  vote  for  me  and  to  uphold  my  poli 
cies  and  have  markedly  increased  the  actual  number  of  my 
opponents  in  this  convention.  Please  remember  this. 

"As  yet  further  proof  of  my  impartiality,  you  behold 
here  on  this  platform  beside  me  our  former  Intendente, 
whom  we  all  admire  and  respect,  however  much  we  depre 
cate  his  tenacity  of  outworn  ideals;  you  also  behold  our 
honoured  and  revered  Bishop,  whom  I  now  ask  to  sanctify 
our  proceedings  by  a  preliminary  prayer  and  to  utter,  as 
freely  as  if  I  were  not  present,  as  freely  as  if  Paraguay 
Were  still  a  Spanish  appanage,  his  opinions  as  to  your  op 
portunities  for  service  to  Paraguay,  his  advice  as  to  your 
duties  to  yourselves  and  your  countrymen. " 

Francia  then  sat  down. 

Everybody  gazed  at  the  Bishop.  He  sat  inert  and  ap 
parently  oblivious,  alike  to  the  speech  just  finished  and 
the  eyes  fixed  upon  him.  In  the  dead  silence  all  continued 
*x>  stare  at  his  benignant,  smiling,  vacuous  countenance. 
Not  until  Don  Gumesindo  had  whispered  to  him,  had  re 
peatedly  whispered  to  him  for  some  time,  did  the  good 
Bishop  awake  to  the  situation  and  stand  up. 

His  all-embracing  smile  of  kindly,  somewhat  fatuous, 
good  will  beamed  upon  the  deputies.  He  lifted  a  voice 
cracked  and  quavering  at  first,  but  later  steady  and  reso 
nant,  shrill  to  the  end  of  his  utterances,  but  entirely  audi 
ble.  The  brief  prayer  with  which  he  began  was  dignified 


EL   PERPETUO  569 

and  impressive,  its  introductory  Latin  sentences  majestic 
ally  sonorous,  its  longer  Spanish  period  appealing  and  up 
lifting,  its  concluding  Latin,  even  in  his  weak,  high  voice, 
somehow  suggesting  the  boom  of  a  great  bell. 

His  prayer  concluded,  he  stood  a  moment  in  silence, 
smiling  vacantly. 

Just  as  the  deputies  were  beginning  to  feel  uneasy,  he 
spoke. 

He  spoke  in  a  hurried,  hasty  manner,  and  there  was  in 
his  attitude,  in  his  tones,  even  more  than  in  his  words,  a 
suggestion  of  waning  intellect,  of  unsettled  balance  of 
mind,  which  sent  a  thrill  of  commiseration  through  his 
audience. 

After  the  customary  compliments,  he  said : 

"It  is  well  known  to  you  that,  next  after  Jerusalem, 
where  our  blessed  Saviour  died  for  us,  and  after  Rome, 
where  dwells  His  Vicar  upon  earth,  even  before  Compos- 
tella,  here  at  Asuncion  the  grace  of  God  is  manifested 
in  a  very  special  manner.  It  may  be  that  by  the  operation 
of  His  infinite  mercy  our  Heavenly  Father  may  put  it  into 
your  hearts  to  vote  for  the  abolition  of  the  form  of  govern 
ment  which  through  presumptuous  vainglory  has  for  some 
years  past  been  established  here  in  Paraguay,  that  you  may 
be  moved  to  revoke  the  dangerous  and  self-willed  assertion 
of  independence,  that  you  may  proclaim  your  renewed 
allegiance  to  your  rightful  King  and  your  subordination  to 
our  mother  country  and  to  the  one  true  church." 

He  paused,  gazing  to  right  and  left,  as  if  expecting  some 
outburst  of  approval.  He  sighed. 

"Perhaps,"  he  continued,  "it  is  I  who  am  presumptu 
ous.  The  will  of  Heaven  is  inscrutable.  It  is  not  for  us, 
for  any  of  us,  for  any  man  born  of  woman,  to  pry  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  dispensations  of  Providence,  to  conjecture 
or  forecast  the  operations  of  Divine  Wisdom.  It  may  be 
that  it  is,  after  all,  the  purpose  of  the  Almighty  that  the 
separation  of  Paraguay  from  Spain  shall  be  permanent, 
that  independence  for  its  population  shall  continue,  that 
they  be  governed  under  the  'forms  of  a  republic.  If  so, 
be  sure  that  all  will  be  for  the  greater  glory  of  God.  If  he 
chastise  us  we  must  bow  our  heads.  It  may  be  that  our 
isolation  from  the  head  of  God's  church  is  a  trial  of  our 
faith,  and  that  through  it,  as  through  all  His  works,  it  may 


570  EL   SUPREMO 

appear  that  the  grace  of  God  is  manifested,  as  it  is  always 
manifested  here  at  Asuncion,  in  a  very  special  manner. 
Be  sure  that  that  special  grace  of  God  is  over  you  and 
among  you,  that  however  you  vote,  it  will  be  by  direct  influ 
ence  of  the  Divine  Will,  that  all  is  decreed  for  the  best, 
for  us  and  all  of  us,  now  and  forever,  here  on  earth  as 
eternally  in  Heaven." 

He  concluded  with  another  brief  prayer,  all  in  Latin 
this  time ;  and  then,  before  he  took  his  seat,  he  blessed  the 
crowd  with  uplifted  hand. 

Almost  instantly  Francia  rose,  before  the  buzz  that  fol 
lowed  the  Bishop's  utterances  could  swell  into  a  hum. 
He  tinkled  his  bell.  Into  the  ensuing  silence  he  spoke 
trenchantly : 

' '  That  I,  like  the  rest  of  us,  have  listened  with  deference 
to  what  our  Bishop  has  just  said  is  a  further  proof  of  my 
impartiality.  I  am  about  to  give  you  a  proof  yet  more 
convincing. 

"But  first  I  must  speak  of  a  question  of  procedure.  I 
use  my  authority  as  Dictator  to  decree  one  small  innovation 
of  great  probable  utility.  Our  first  congress,  which  four 
years  ago  rejected  the  insulting  proposals  of  the  Portenos, 
vindicated  the  patriotism  of  Paraguay,  established  a  repub 
lican  form  of  government,  and  selected  consuls,  held  its 
sessions  after  the  immemorial  custom  of  cabildos  every 
where,  each  member  addressing  the  assembly  seated  as  he 
was. 

' '  This  method  was  found  to  have  its  disadvantages.  The 
speaker  was  likely  to  interrupt  himself  by  stopping  to  take 
snuff,  was  liable  to  be  interrupted  by  any  other  delegate, 
as  all  were  alike  seated  and  the  rightful  speaker  had  no 
mark  of  distinction  or  prominence. 

"At  the  convention  a  year  later  we  endeavoured  to  rem 
edy  this  defect  by  providing,  in  front  of  the  table  of  the 
presiding  official,  somewhat  below  him,  but  decidedly  above 
the  level  of  the  seats  for  the  delegates,  a  tribune,  after  the 
French  fashion,  from  which  the  orator  might  address  his 
fellow-members.  This,  in  fact,  did  away  with  all  danger 
of  the  speaker  interrupting  himself  and  gave  him  such 
prominence  that  he  was  even  too  little  interrupted  from 
the  general  seats. 

"But  this  also  had  its  disadvantages.    You  wasted  your 


EL   PERPETUO  571 

time  listening  to  interminable  harangues  till  you  were 
weary  enough  to  vote  any  resolution,  for  the  sake  of  getting 
off  promptly  at  two  o'clock  to  dinner  or  at  sunset  to  supper. 
And  though  it  was  a  minor  drawback,  much  time  was  also 
wasted  while  the  last  speaker  passed  from  the  tribune  to 
his  place  and  his  successor  from  his  place  to  the  tribune. 

"Therefore,  I  have  decided  that  this  convention  shall 
conduct  its  debates  according  to  the  customs  of  the  parlia 
ment  of  England  and  of  the  legislatures  and  the  Congress 
of  the  Estados  Unidcs  del  America  del  Norte.  Each  mem 
ber  who  wishes  to  address  the  assembly  shall  rise  in  his 
place  and  make  his  speech  there,  standing.  If  several  rise 
at  once  or  seem  to  rise  at  the  same  time  the  chairman,  or 
any  temporary  moderator  he  may  appoint  to  take  this 
chair  in  his  absence,  shall  decide  which  stood  up  first  or 
which  is  entitled  to  speak. 

"One  trifling  departure  from  the  English  usage  I  pro 
pose:  namely,  that  the  chairman  may  briefly  address  the 
meeting  in  comment  upon  any  member's  speech  or  motion 
without  going  through  the  tedious  formality  of  resigning 
the  chair  to  a  temporary  substitute  chosen  by  himself  and 
himself  becoming,  for  the  time  being,  a  mere  delegate 
among  the  delegates. 

"It  will  be  necessary  that  some  deputy  make  a  motion 
to  this  effect,  embodying  my  suggestions,  that  some  other 
deputy  second  the  motion,  and  that  the  resolution  be 
adopted  by  a  majority  vote,  those  who  approve  rising  to 
gether  to  signify  their  views,  those  who  disapprove,  if  any, 
then  rising  after  the  others  have  sat  down. 

"That  matter  set  in  motion  I  have  now  to  recur  to  the 
question  of  impartiality.  I  am  extremely  earnest  on  this 
point.  No  man  shall  suffer  in  any  way  for  any  vote  he 
may  record  by  rising,  by  raising  a  hand  or  by  word  of 
mouth.  No  man  shall  suffer  in  any  way  for  anything  he 
may  say,  no  matter  how  opposed  to  my  known  public  pol 
icy  and  private  opinion.  Not  only  no  one  shall  be  executed, 
imprisoned  or  so  much  as  arrested,  but  no  man  shall  at  any 
time  hereafter  be  inconvenienced  or  discomforted  because 
of  any  act  or  word  of  his  while  a  member  of  this  congress. 
My  personal  displeasure,  should  I  feel  any,  shall  never  be 
manifested  against  any  deputy  in  any  way.  No  man  shall 
be  made  to  feel,  directly  or  indirectly,  that  he  is  in  the  bad 


572  EL   SUPREMO 

graces  of  the  government  of  Paraguay  because  of  any  frank 
and  open  antagonism  to  me  or  to  the  existing  order  of 
things.  I  am  here  to  ensure  freedom  of  speech  for  all  of 
you,  and  I  shall  do  my  utmost  to  elicit  full  expressions  of 
all  opinions  and  a  fair  hearing  for  any  and  every  proposal. 

"The  first  business  before  the  meeting  is  the  election  of 
a  temporary  chairman." 

Francia  then  sat  down. 

At  once  several  deputies  were  on  their  feet. 

Francia  looked  them  over. 

"Don  Antonio  Kecalde,"  said  he. 

Don  Antonio,  huskily,  nominated  for  temporary  chair 
man  His  Excellency  Doctor  Don  Jose  Gaspar  Rodriguez 
de  Francia,  Supreme  Dictator  of  Paraguay. 

Padre  Yeguaca,  curate  of  Curuguatay,  seconded  the  mo 
tion,  saying: 

"We  could  have  no  presiding  officer  a  tithe  as  efficient 
and  fair  as  our  incomparable  Dictator." 

"Do  I  hear  any  discussion  of  the  motion?"  Francia 
queried,  gazing  about. 

At  once  he  nodded,  saying: 

"Don  Prudencio  la  Guardia." 

Don  Prudencio,  all  in  plum-coloured  velvet,  as  usual, 
made  his  plumpness  as  tall  as  possible,  cleared  his  throat 
and  began : 

"Excellency,  I  oppose  the  nomination.  I  comprehend 
your  Excellency's  motives  in  presiding  here,  I  realise  your 
Excellency's  complete  sincerity.  Yet  I  maintain  that  the 
effect  of  your  Excellency's  presence  will  be  the  reverse  of 
what  your  Excellency  intends.  It  is  impossible  that  more 
than  a  very  few  will  venture  to  oppose  your  Excellency  in 
any  way  when  face  to  face  with  your  Excellency.  I  myself 
have  always  had  the  resolution  to  speak  my  mind  in  all 
debates  in  which  I  have  shared.  I  find  it  requires  more 
than  usual  courage  to  make  the  speech  I  am  now  making. 
It  must  be  the  same  with  others,  and  even  more  so.  I  ven 
ture  to  suggest  that  any  other  chairman  would  be  more 
salutary  than  the  chairman  nominated." 

Don  Prudencio  sat  down,  mopping  his  forehead. 

"Do  I  hear  an  alternate  nomination?"  Francia  queried. 

After  a  silence  he  asked : 

"Senor  Don  Prudencio,  will  you  nominate  a  candidate?" 


EL  PERPETUO  573 

"I  nominate  Don  Eustaquio  Bak,"  Don  Prudencio  re 
joined,  promptly,  but  with  a  gasp. 

Don  Ladislao  Casal  seconded  the  nomination. 

Only  he  and  Don  Prudencio  voted  for  Don  Eustaquio: 
the  rest  of  the  delegates  were  unanimous  for  the  Dictator. 

"It  appears,"  Francia  announced,  "that  Don  Gaspar 
is  chosen  temporary  chairman  by  a  vote  of  something  over 
eight  hundred  ayes  to  fewer  than  three  nays.  Don  Gaspar 
is  therefore  declared  elected  temporary  chairman.  As  he 
already  occupies  the  chair,  no  further  formality  is  neces 
sary. 

* '  The  next  business  before  the  meeting  is  the  putting  in 
the  form  of  a  regular  motion  of  my  proposal  that  each 
speaker  addresses  the  convention  standing  immediately  be 
fore  the  seat  he  happens  to  occupy;  that  any  member  de 
siring  to  speak  shall  signify  his  desire  by  rising  to  his  feet, 
that  if  several  seem  to  rise  simultaneously  the  chairman 
shall  be  the  judge  to  which  belongs  the  right  to  speak/' 

Don  Prudencio  at  once  made  the  motion,  which  was  sec 
onded  by  Don  Renato  Jovellanos,  put  into  writing  by  Don 
Andres  Villarino,  read,  approved  by  Don  Prudencio  as  a 
proper  embodiment  of  his  motion,  moved  as  read,  and 
adopted  without  a  dissenting  voice. 

"The  next  business  before  the  meeting,"  Francia  de 
clared,  "is  the  choosing  of  a  permanent  chairman." 

Naturally,  he  himself  was  chosen  as  before,  Don  Pru 
dencio  again  putting  up  the  name  of  Don  Eustaquio,  for 
whom  only  he  and  his  resolute  backer,  Don  Ladisiao  Casal, 
cast  their  votes,  the  rest  acclaiming  the  Dictator. 

When  the  acclamations  died  away  several  deputies  rose 
and  Francia  recognised  a  suburban  chacarero  and  local 
keeper  of  a  pulperia,  saying: 

"Don  Manuel  Fernandez." 

"If  I  understand  aright  the  method  of  procedure  in 
such  an  assemblage  as  this,"  Don  Manuel  said,  "we  have 
now  reached  the  point  where  we  can  transact  our  most  im 
portant  business.  I  move  that  we  now  proceed  to  confirm 
and  continue  our  present  form  of  government." 

As  he  sat  down  there  arose  a  chorus  of  voices  calling : 

"I  second  the  motion." 

"Do  I  hear  any  discussion  of  this  motion?"  Francia 
queried. 


574  EL   SUPREMO 

Don  Prudencio  was  instantly  on  his  feet. 

1 ' Excellency, ' '  he  said,  "I  maintain  that  this  motion  is 
too  vague  and  indefinite,  too  hazy  to  be  dealt  with  as  a 
motion  at  all,  and  that,  therefore,  no  motion  is  before  the 
convention. ' ' 

"The  chair  sustains  your  objection,"  Francia  said. 
*"Any  motion  is,  therefore,  in  order/' 

"I  wish  to  make  a  motion,  your  Excellency,"  Don  Pru 
dencio  continued.  "But  I  desire  to  preface  it  with  some 
remarks  in  support  of  it. 

"It  appears  to  me  that  it  is  often  best  to  clear  the  at 
mosphere  of  debate,  so  to  speak,  by  making  a  motion  which 
one  knows  beforehand  will  be  rejected  by  an  overwhelming 
majority,  even  to  make  a  motion  which  one  does  not  ap 
prove  of,  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  discussion  by  showing 
at  once  how  futile  discussion  would  be.  This  often  is  best 
accomplished  by  moving  the  opposite  of  what  appears  most 
popular.  "With  all  that  in  mind,  I  wish  to  move  that  we 
abolish  the  office  of  Dictator  and  that  Paraguay  be  gov 
erned  by  two  Consuls,  chosen  yearly." 

No  sooner  had  Don  Prudencio  uttered  these  words  than 
the  Cathedral  was  filled  with  uproar,  most  of  the  delegates 
vociferating  execrations  of  the  proposal,  many  of  them 
arising  to  their  feet. 

Francia  rang  his  bell  sharply  for  silence  and  glared  at 
the  excited  rustics  until  all  resumed  their  seats. 

' '  Don  Prudencio  has  the  floor, ' '  he  declared.  '  *  Have  you 
more  to  say  on  this  point?" 

"No  more,"  Don  Prudencio  replied.  "I  request  some 
friend  to  second  the  motion." 

"Before  calling  for  a  second  for  this  motion,"  Francia 
said,  "the  chair  wishes  to  make  it  perfectly  clear  to  all 
that  he  shall  insist  upon  its  being  seconded,  shall  call  for 
discussion  of  it,  and  shall  see  to  it  that  it  is  temperately 
and  quietly  voted  upon. 

"But  with  this  assurance  he  begs  you,  Senor  Don  Pru 
dencio,  to  withdraw  your  motion  for  the  time  being." 

Don  Prudencio  bowed. 

"Excellency,"  he  said,  "with  the  intention  of  making  it 
again  at  the  first  opportunity,  I  withdraw  my  motion. ' ' 

"I  applaud  your  intention,  Senor  Don  Prudencio," 
Francia  said,  "and  I  acclaim  your  idea.  I  see  great  possi- 


EL   PERPETUO  575 

bilities  in  it;  great  possibilities  of  swift  despatch  of  busi 
ness  and  of  definite  and  permanent  settling  of  vexed  ques 
tions. 

"Now  let  all  present  listen  well  and  attend  closely. 

"Be  it  known  to  all  of  you  that  it  is  in  no  way  incum 
bent  upon  the  mover  or  seconder  of  a  motion  to  vote  for 
that  motion.  I  am  about  to  request  the  formal  proposal 
of  several  motions  which  I  confidently  anticipate  will  be 
voted  down,  if  unanimously  voted  down,  so  much  the 
better.  But  made  and  seconded  they  must  be;  I  ask 
that  as  a  favour  to  the  existing  government  and  to  its 
head. 

"In  the  first  place,  you  all  doubtless  remember  the  ad 
dress  just  now  made  by  Bishop  Evaristo  de  Panes.  With 
that  in  mind,  I  request  some  deputy  to  put  his  chief  sug 
gestion  in  the  form  of  a  motion." 

There  was  a  visible  thrill  of  horror  all  over  the  church. 
On  Francia 's  right  Don  Gumesindo  nearly  exploded,  his 
face  purple  to  his  hair.  Beside  Hawthorne  Parlett  slapped 
his  thigh. 

"Old  fox!"  he  exclaimed. 

Francia  rang  his  bell. 

"Don  Vicente  Mayorga,"  he  recognised. 

* '  Have  I  understood  your  Excellency  aright  ? ' '  Mayorga 
stammered. 

uYou  have  understood  me  perfectly,  Senor  Don  Vi 
cente,"  Fmncia  replied. 

Mayorga  stood  as  tall  as  he  could,  he  stammered  no 
longer,  he  spoke  in  Guarani,  that  all  might  hear  and  com 
prehend,  he  spoke  sonorously  and  clear. 

Don  Cipriano  Domeque  seconded  the  motion. 

"It  is  moved  and  seconded, ' '  Francia  enunciated  clearly 
in  Guarani,  "that  Paraguay  revoke  her  chief  acts  of  the 
past  seven  years,  annul  the  effect  of  the  heroic  valour  of  her 
sons,  renounce  her  independence,  and  affirm  herself  a  de 
pendency  of  Spain,  a  loyal  and  faithful  appanage  and 
possession  of  King  Ferdinand  the  Seventh.  Who  will  vote 
aye  to  this  motion?" 

During  this  announcement,  as  during  the  dead  silence 
that  followed,  Hawthorne  kept  his  eyes  on  the  amazed, 
incredulous,  anticipatory,  wistful  faces  of  the  Bishop  and 
of  Don  Bernardo  Velasco.  On  their  crestfallen  eounte- 


576  EL   SUPREMO 

nances  he  kept  his  gaze  until  the  volley  of  simultaneous 
nays  had  exploded  in  one  mighty  crash  and  immediately 
died  away. 

Into  the  ensuing  impressive  stillness  spoke  Francia  once 
more. 

"The  chair  now  suggests,"  he  said,  "that  some  one  em 
body  in  the  form  of  a  motion  the  proposals  which  Don 
Nicolas  Herrera  never  had  a  chance  to  lay  before  the  first 
convention. 

' '  I  ask  this  as  a  personal  favour  to  myself.  It  is  evident 
that  Don  Prudencio's  plan  is  efficacious  for  eliciting  the 
sense  of  the  meeting  in  the  most  unmistakable  fashion,  and 
furnishes  an  expeditious  method  of  laying  to  rest  forever 
any  ghosts  of  outworn  ideas  which  may  still  haunt  us.  Will 
some  one  please  make  the  motion  ?" 

During  the  startled  silence  which  ensued  Parlett  whis 
pered  to  Hawthorne: 

'  *  He  tries  to  say  *  the  chair, '  but  '  I '  keeps  on  slipping  in 
in  spite  of  him. '  ' 

A  long  period  of  silence  appeared  to  elapse  before  any 
one  stood  up. 

"Don  Atanacio  Cabanas!"  Francia  recognised. 

The  dignified  ex-general  spoke  in  Guarani. 

"I  comprehend  the  efficacy  of  Don  Prudencio's  advice," 
he  said.  "But  I  do  not  wonder  that  we  all  shrink  from 
the  humiliation  of  putting  so  distasteful  a  motion.  As  I 
am,  perhaps,  in  less  danger  than  any  other  man  of  being 
mistaken  for  an  enemy  to  independent  Paraguay  or  for  a 
friend  to  the  Portenos,  I  am  willing  to  endure  the  shame 
of  putting  the  desired  motion." 

After  he  had  made  it,  Don  Fulgencio  Yegros  came  pon 
derously  to  his  feet  and  was  recognised. 

"They  say,"  began  the  goggle-eyed  Gaucho,  "that  I  am 
slow  to  grasp  an  idea.  I  grasp  Don  Prudencio's  idea,  and 
also  Don  Atanacio 's.  I  second  his  motion." 

"It  is  moved  and  seconded,"  Francia  proclaimed,  "that 
Paraguay  give  up  her  independence  and  submit  herself  to 
the  dictation  of  the  Portenos,  putting  herself  under  the 
protection  of  Buenos  Aires  on  a  footing  equal  with  any 
other  province  as,  for  instance,  Cuyo,  Santa  Fe  or  Entre 
Rios.  All  in  favour  of  this  motion  will  please  vote  'aye,' 
all  opposed  'nay.'  The  nays  have  it.  On  this  point  the 


EL   PERPETUO  575 

eonvention  is  unanimous.  Seilor  Don  Prudencio,  yom 
motion  is  now  in  order. ' ' 

Don  Prudencio 's  motion  to  revert  to  consuls,  elected 
yearly,  was  lost,  like  its  two  predecessors.  Don  Manuel 
Fernandez  was  at  once  on  his  feet  and  recognised. 

"I  move,"  he  said,  "that  the  form  of  government  of 
Paraguay  continue  a  dictatorship." 

"A  judiciously  put  motion,"  Francia  remarked;  "do  I 
hear  a  second?" 

The  motion  was  at  once  vociferously  seconded  by  half 
of  the  delegates,  put  and  carried,  only  la  Guardia,  Mayor- 
ga,  Cabanas,  Yegros,  Bogarin,  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda, 
Padre  Caballero,  General  Caballero,  both  Casals,  Do- 
meque,  de  Maria,  Echagiie,  Don  Jose  Carisimo,  Don  Hi- 
larion  Decoud,  Don  Estanislao  Machain,  his  brother  Don 
Cayetano,  Don  Jacinto  Ruiz,  Don  Larios  Galvan,  and  hand 
some  Don  Lupercio  Velarde  voting  in  the  negative. 

Francia  had  them  counted  again  and  again,  again  and 
again  he  queried  whether  no  adverse  vote  had  been  ig 
nored,  and  only  after  ingenious  delays  calculated  to  em 
phasise  their  numerical  insignificance,  did  he  announce : 

"The  motion  is  carried  by  more  than  nine  hundred  and 
seventy  ayes  to  precisely  a  score  of  nays.  Nominations  are 
now  in  order." 

Instantly  la  Guardia  was  on  his  feet. 

"Don  Prudencio,"  Francia  recognised. 

"Before  the  nominations  begin,"  la  Guardia  said,  "I 
wish  to  formulate  another  motion." 

"Declare  it,"  Francia  snapped. 

"I  move,"  Don  Prudencio  slowly  bellowed  in  Guarani, 
"that  instead  of  electing  a  Dictator  we  appoint  a  com 
mittee  to  draw  up  a  list  of  a  hundred  names,  to  include 
the  hundred  Paraguayans  most  fit  by  birth,  breeding,  edu 
cation,  occupation  and  wealth  for  the  office  of  Dictator; 
that,  after  the  list  is  made  and  approved  by  the  convention, 
the  names  be  written  on  separate  slips  of  paper  and  shaken 
in  a  dry  jar,  that  a  blindfolded  child  draw  out  one  of  the 
slips,  that  the  man  whose  name  is  on  that  slip  be  there 
upon  declared  for  one  year  thereafter  Dictator  of  Para 
guay;  that  each  year  on  the  same  date  a  successor  be 
chosen  in  the  same  fashion." 

Prancia  swelled  with  fury. 


578  EL   SUPREMO 

* c  Traitor, ' '  he  snarled,  * '  to  my  face  do  you  dare  to  make 
such  a  proposal  ? ' ' 

La  Guardia  visibly  quailed,  flushing  and  paling,  all 
atremble,  and  apparently  sweating  profusely,  yet  he  held 
his  ground. 

" Excellency/ '  he  faltered,  "I  rely  on  the  chairman's 
proclamation  that  every  deputy  here  is  free  to  speak  his 
mind,  that  no  word  or  act  of  any  delegate  shall  cause  him 
to  feel  the  expressed  or  tacit  displeasure  of  the  existing 
administration  or  of  any  of  its  members,  that  opposition  to 
the  present  order  of  things  would  be  taken  as  a  favour. ' ' 

Francia  glared  and  glowered,  his  brows  puckered,  his 
frown  menacing.  Then  his  face  cleared,  he  even  smiled. 

"Quite  correct,  quite  as  it  should  be,  Senor  Don  Pru- 
dencio,"  he  said  huskily  and  with  an  effort.  "Your  cour 
age  does  you  credit.  Will  you  be  good  enough  to  repeat 
your  motion  first  in  Spanish,  then  in  Guarani." 

The  proposal  was  then  seconded,  submitted  and  lost  by 
a  vote  like  the  last,  only  the  intrepid  and  audacious  twenty 
voting  for  it. 

Then  there  came  to  his  feet  a  Tape  Indian  Mayor,  better 
clad  than  the  generality  of  his  brethren,  wearing  across 
his  green  jacket  and  glaring  pink  waistcoat  a  broad  satin 
sash  of  brilliant  patriot 's  blue. 

Francia  recognised  him  as: 

"  Alcalde  Borja  Nerando." 

Nerando  was  a  leather-skinned,  flat-faced  Guarani,  very 
pop-eyed  and  stolid  of  countenance.  He  spoke  slowly  and 
most  distinctly  in  his  native  tongue. 

"I  speak,"  he  said,  "for  myself  and  for  my  brothers,  for 
more  than  four  hundred  mayors  of  reductions. 

"In  the  first  place,  we  all  want  to  go  home.  We  need 
our  families,  our  affairs  are  in  need  of  us,  and  we  are  un 
der  great  expense  maintaining  ourselves  here  at  Asuncion. 
Therefore,  we  wish  to  complete  the  work  of  this  convention 
as  promptly  as  possible  and  to  disperse  the  moment  its 
work  is  done. 

"But  we  are  willing  to  prolong  to  any  extent  our  exile 
from  our  homes  if  it  is  necessary  to  do  so  in  order  to  im 
press  upon  the  convention  our  desires;  to  have  them  dis 
cussed,  to  have  them  voted  upon ;  to  have  them,  if  possible, 
made  law.  To  this  end  we  are  willing  to  spend  our  time, 


EL   PERPETUO  579 

even  to  waste  our  time,  to  eat  out  our  hearts  longing  for 
our  families,  to  let  our  farmlands  and  herds  go  to  ruin, 
impoverish  ourselves  living  at  the  Capital.  We  are  re 
solved  not  to  be  browbeaten  or  inveigled.  Let  all  the  con 
vention  remember  that. 

' '  In  the  second  place,  then,  we  have  had  already,  had  had 
already  before  this  convention  was  convened,  too  much 
convention.  "We  came  together  instinctively  six  years 
ago,  panic-stricken  and  bewildered,  but  feeling  that  we 
must  create  a  workable  form  of  government  for  Paraguay, 
or  suffer  the  horrors  of  subjugation  by  the  Porteiios,  by  the 
Brasileros,  or,  worst  of  all,  by  the  forces  of  the  terrible 
viceroy  of  the  Spanish  King  at  Lima.  We  did  not  on  that 
first  occasion  grudge  our  time  or  our  expenses.  Nor  did 
we  so  much  begrudge  them  two  years  later,  when  we  gath 
ered  to  elect  consuls,  nor  so  very  much  three  years  ago*: 
when  we  reassembled  to  elect  a  Dictator. 

"But  we  now  bitterly  grudge  every  hour  of  our  timtf 
and  every  maravedi  of  our  cash.  We  have  created  a  work 
able  government  for  Paraguay  and  a  government  that 
works  as  a  government  should  and  as  we  want  to  see  our 
government  work.  We  are  safe  from  conquest,  invasion, 
raids,  revolts  and  uprisings.  We  have  peace ;  our  lives  are 
safe;  we  have  food  aplenty,  clothing,  ease  and  comfort. 
Entre  Rios  and  all  the  rest  of  the  continent  are  drowned 
in  blood  and  fire.  We  are  satisfied.  We  want  assured  per 
manence  of  our  prosperity.  We  want  freedom  from  the 
bother  of  thinking  and  voting.  We  want  no  more  one- 
year  administrations,  no  more  three-year  administrations, 
no,  nor  any  five-year  administrations,  nor  ten-year  admin 
istrations.  We  want  to  be  rid  of  the  necessity  of  leaving 
our  homes  and  estates  and  of  wasting  our  time  and  money. 
No  more  conventions  for  us. 

*  *  It  has  been  made  sufficiently  clear  that  we  do  not  want 
to  be  governed  by  Spaniards  or  by  Portenos,  that  we  are 
determined  that  Paraguay  shall  be  governed  by  Paraguay 
ans.  But  we  want  no  more  juntas  or  consuls,  we  want  one 
man  at  the  head  of  affairs.  And  it  is  quite  evident  that 
we  do  not  want  that  one  man  chosen  by  lot  from  the  hun 
dred  Paraguayans  best  fitted  to  govern  Paraguay.  If  it 
were  moved  we  should  make  it  equally  unmistakable  that 
we  do  not  want  that  one  man  chosen  by  lot  from  the  fifty 


580  EL    SUPREMO 

Paraguayans  best  fitted  or  the  twenty-five  best  fitted  or  the 
ten  best  fitted  to  govern  Paraguay.  We  want  to  elect  that 
one  man  openly  and  by  loud-voiced  votes. 

"Now,  for  the  past  three  years  Paraguayans  have  been 
divided  into  two  classes;  our  Supreme  Dictator  has  been 
the  sole  member  of  one  class,  all  the  rest  of  us  have  made 
up  the  other.  I  maintain  that  in  respect  to  fitness  to  gov 
ern  the  difference  between  the  lowest  and  vilest  and  most 
incompetent  members  of  the  second  class  and  the  most  com 
petent,  capable,  wise,  upright  and  reliable  man  among  us 
all  is  far  less  than  the  difference  between  the  best  other 
man  we  can  produce  and  our  present  executive. 

"We  can  and  do  trust  him  to  do  all  that  human  powers 
can  do  to  make  impossible  an  invasion  of  our  Paraguay 
from  Peru  or  Brazil  or  from  down  the  river.  We  can  trust 
him  to  work  steadily  and  cannily  to  have  the  river  declared 
a  waterway  free  to  the  ships  of  all  nations,  so  that  vessels 
from  overseas  may  moor  here  at  Asuncion  and  we  not  have 
to  pay  double  and  treble  for  all  we  import  merely  to  enrich 
the  greedy  Portenos.  We  can  trust  him  to  maintain  an 
army  adequate  for  beating  back  any  invasion,  if  invasion 
comes;  and  yet  not  to  misuse  that  army  to  oppress  the 
nation.  What  other  Paraguayan  could  we  so  trust  ?  What 
other  Paraguayan  could  we  trust  to  keep  his  eyes  and 
thoughts  from  our  daughters  and  wives?  What  other 
native  could  we  trust  to  refuse  two-thirds  of  the  salary  we 
voted  him,  turn  that  two-thirds  into  the  public  treasury 
and  live  contentedly  on  one-third  of  what  we  had  accorded 
him?  What  other  citizen  could  we  trust  not  to  accept 
bribes,  not  to  make  all  he  could  on  any  public  contract  for 
supply  of  war-material?  What  other  man  could  we  trust 
to  give  decisions  as  judge  merely  to  the  facts  of  the  case, 
and  not  by  favouritism  or  for  gold  ? 

"I  want  to  go  home.  We  all  want  to  go  home  and  stay 
home.  I  am  told  that  we  are  to  hear  the  report  of  the 
department  of  war,  the  report  of  the  department  of  justice, 
the  report  of  the  finance-department,  the  report  of  the  cus 
tom  house,  the  report  of  the  tax-gathering,  the  report  of  the 
treasurer.  I  want  to  hear  no  reports.  I  know  that  all  these 
departments  have  been  administered  honestly  and  econom 
ically  because  Carai  Francia  has  overseen  them  all.  I  need 
no  reports. 


EL   PERPETUO  581 

"I  move  that  all  reports  be  dispensed  with." 

The  motion  was  seconded  by  half  the  delegates  and  car 
ried  in  a  roar  of  enthusiasm  without  a  single  vote  in  oppo 
sition. 

At  once  Nerando  was  on  his  feet  again  and  recog 
nised. 

"I  move/'  he  trumpeted,  "a  vote  of  complete  confidence 
in  all  details  of  the  past  three  years7  administration  of  our 
Supreme  Dictator." 

This  called  forth  from  the  assembly  in  general  and  from 
the  Tape  alcaldes  in  particular  deafening  roars  of: 

"Carai,  Carai  Francia,  viva  Carai  Francia,  viva  el  Carai, 
viva  el  Carai  Supremo,  viva  el  Carai  Perpetuo." 

When  this  motion  was  unanimously  carried,  Nerando 
rose  for  the  third  time. 

"I  have  a  third  motion  to  make,"  he  said,  "a  motion 
which  if  carried  will  relieve  us  of  any  further  necessity  for 
absence  from  home,  expense,  worry  or  concern,  debates  or 
votes.  There  is  but  one  man  we  trust  and  we  all  trust 
him.  There  is  but  one  peaceful  and  prosperous  country 
in  all  South  America  and  that  is  Paraguay.  Paraguay  is 
peaceful  and  prosperous  partly  because  of  her  form  of  gov 
ernment,  most  of  all  because  of  the  matchless  qualities  of 
her  Supreme  Dictator. 

"I  move  that  our  Supreme  Dictator  be  declared  Per 
petual,  that  all  his  past  and  present  powers  and  all  au 
thority  necessary  for  the  continuance  of  his  administra 
tion  and  for  the  doing  of  any  and  every  act  necessary  for 
governing  be  conferred  upon  him  and  vested  in  him  for 
the  whole  term  of  his  life  and  that  he  be  herewith  pro 
claimed  Supreme  Perpetual  Dictator  of  Paraguay!" 

Above  the  universal  detonation  of  seconding  voices  Don 
Manuel  Fernandez  made  himself  distinctly  heard,  and  had 
the  honour  of  hearing  his  name  announced  as  seconding  the 
motion. 

When  it  was  carried  the  assembly  yelled  itself  hoarse 
roaring : 

"Viva  el  Perpetuo!" 

"Viva  el  Supremo  Perpetuo!" 

"Viva  el  Carai  Supremo!" 

"Viva  el  Carai  Perpetuo!" 

"Viva  el  Carai  Supremo  Perpetiw!" 


582  EL   SUPREMO 

When  they  could  yell  no  more  somebody  uttered  in  a  far- 
carrying  whisper: 

"Move  we  now  adjourn." 
Instantly  a  hundred  voices  bellowed : 
-  **'!  move  we  now  adjourn." 

-As  the  Cathedral  emptied  Hawthorne  remarked: 
* '  It  seems  to  me  the  proceedings  were  entirely  fair. '  ' 
"Humph!"  said  Parlett.     "It's  easy  to  be  fair  on  the 
surface,  when  you've  spent  three  years  packing  a  conven 
tion  so  you  've  forty-nine  solid  votes  in  your  favour  to  every 
one  against  you.    Anybody  could  be  suave  and  bland  with 
a  majority  of  nine  hundred  and  sixty  in  a  thousand  votes. 
Pooh!" 

CHAPTER  XLI 

RIDDLES 
(1) 

BY  special  decree,  paraded  through  the  city  to  the  sound 
of  drums  and  fifes  and  proclaimed  by  reiterated  read 
ings  of  the  bando  at  all  important  street-corners,  the  two 
days  ensuing  upon  the  adjournment  of  the  convention  were 
set  apart  as  public  levee-days,  during  which  the  Dictator 
would  receive  in  the  grand  sola  of  the  Palacio  all  persons 
desiring  to  pay  him  their  respects. 

The  Tape  Alcaldes  ignored  this  decree;  each  man  of 
them  had  more  than  once  displayed  himself  before  the 
Carai's  mirador  and  made  his  due  reverence.  They  took 
horse  before  sunset  and  scattered  north,  east,  and  south 
west.  With  them  went  most  of  the  semi-Gauchos  of  Mis- 
siones,  some  of  the  Tape  landowners,  •  and  a  few  of  the 
country  gentlemen.  But  fully  half  of  the  deputies  lin 
gered  in  Asuncion  to  ennoble  and  enjoy  the  two  Dias  de 
Besamanos,  the  Kiss-hand  days,  as  the  Spaniards  called 
them. 

These  deputies  crowded  to  the  Palacio  on  the  morning 
of  the  first  day,  a  motley  throng,  well  besprinkled  with 
the  sombre  garbs  of  Tape  curates.  The  generality  wore 
clothes  of  country  fashion,  with  the  lace-fringes  of  their 
cambric  drawers,  their  much-vaunted  caleconcillos,  dan- 


RIDDLES  583 

•gling  about  their  cotton-stockinged  calves,  many  yellow, 
some  blue  or  green,  but  the  generality  of  a  raw,  dirty  pink, 
They  wore  knee-breeches  open  at  the  knee,  of  corduroy 
velvet  or  of  gaily  dyed  cloth,  laced  and  ruffled  shirts,  bright 
jackets  with  brighter  facings,  many  yellow  and  blue,  some 
red  and  green,  but  the  most  blue  and  red.  Their  ponchos 
they  draped  over  their  shoulders  like  gentlemen's  capotes. 

Nearly  half  of  them  were  garbed  for  the  ceremony  in  old 
Spanish  court-suits,  with  coat-tails  down  to  their  silk- 
'stockinged  calves,  tight-buckled  knee  breeches,  gold-laced 
waistcoats  sewn  with  little  gold  buttons,  and  coats  with  huge 
•cuff,  collar  and  pocket  flaps  set  off  by  monstrous  flat  pearl 
buttons.  These  suits  were  mostly  borrowed  for  the  occa 
sion  and  Hawthorne  saw  the  same  identical  suit  reappear 
-again  and  again  upon  a  succession  of  different  wearers. 
But  some  had  evidently  been  kept  in  the  family  as  heir 
looms,  even  for  generations,  lovingly  packed  for  the  jour 
ney  to  Asuncion  and  worn  on  this  day  only.  Of  these  their 
owners  were  manifestly  and  pardonably  proud,  for  all  that 
they  were  much  more  antiquated  and  grotesque  than  the 
borrowed  costumes.  These  family  treasures  were  mostly  of 
mazarine  blue  "Pano  de  San  Fernando/'  once  the  best  and 
most  costly  cloth  in  Spain.  Their  flaps,  cuffs,  pockets  and 
collars  were  even  more  portentous  than  the  general  run 
of  gentlemen  7s  wear  in  Asuncion,  which  was  saying  a  great 
deal. 

After  the  siesta  hour  of  the  first  levee-day  only  a  few 
Mated  country-deputies  appeared;  by  sunset  the  last  had 
left  Asuncion.  Therefore,  on  that  afternoon  and  next 
morning  Francia's  formal  reception  was,  except  that  all 
the  salutants  were  male,  almost  a  duplicate  of  his  informal 
impromptu  levee  at  the  fiesta  at  Itapua. 

He  wore  the  same  thin  shoes,  white  stockings,  knee- 
breeches  and  waistcoat,  the  same  longtailed  blue  coat  with 
facings  of  buff.  His  only  ornaments  were  the  small  gold 
buckles  at  his  insteps  and  knees,  the  narrow  gold  lace  on 
his  coat,  the  gold  hilt  of  his  sword  and  his  unusual  ring. 

The  deconsecrated  Jesuit  church,  long  used  as  a  sola, 
still  showed  traces  of  its  ornate  carving  and  gilding.  The 
Dictator  stood  not  at  the  far  end  of  the  hall,  but  well  down 
towards  the  center.  He  was  affable  and  smiling  to  all; 
to  Yegros,  Caballero  and  the  other  ex-generals  in  their 


584  EL   SUPREMO 

tight  regimentals,  to  Don  Bernardo  and  the  fatuously 
beaming  Bishop,  to  the  Vicar-General,  to  the  Priors,  to  the 
cringing  clergy,  to  the  old  Spaniards,  the  Creoles,  the  mer 
chants,  the  commonalty.  For  persons  of  very  humble  sta 
tion  were  admitted  in  great  numbers;  even  Orrego  was 
there  for  a  brief  time.  Most  of  the  salutants,  however, 
were  gentry,  garbed  befittingly,  according  to  their  own 
ideas  and  the  local  fashions,  all  in  vast  coats,  gaudy  waist 
coats,  gay  knee-breeches  and  white  stockings;  all  with, 
court-swords  at  their  sides;  court-swords  managed  with  a 
grace  and  elegance  which  provoked  Hawthorne's  admira 
tion,  especially  towards  the  bearing  of  the  younger  men. 
For,  although  there  was  now  and  then  a  black-clad  doctor 
of  laws  to  be  seen,  the  most  of  the  courtly  gathering  were 
the  brilliant  butterflies  of  Asuncion  High-Life ;  the  younger 
men  more  dazzling  than  their  gorgeous  elders. 

With  them,  as  garishly  garbed  as  their  grandfathers, 
fathers  or  grown  brothers,  were  dozens  of  the  same  self- 
possessed  children  Hawthorne  had  wondered  over  at 
Itapua;  perfect  miniatures  of  their  parents,  as  well  able 
to  comport  themselves,  as  grave,  as  pompous,  and,  already 
at  eleven  years  of  age,  nay  even  at  eight  years  old,  able  to 
manage  a  court-sword  admirably;  able  to  make  their  obei 
sance  to  the  Dictator  becomingly. 

To  Hawthorne,  looking  on,  these  little  marvels  of  dignity 
and  courtliness  were  almost  the  most  charming  feature 
of  the  levee. 

Almost,  but  not  quite.  For,  assuredly,  the  most  charm 
ing  feature  of  the  reception  was  Don  Toribio's  naive  and 
simple-hearted  joy  at  his  complete  sight,  at  his  ability  to 
mingle  with  his  fellow-men,  at  his  health,  high-spirits  and 
fine  clothes.  He  was  the  only  man  in  the  assembly  not  a 
cleric,  doctor  of  laws  or  doctor  of  medicine,  who  wore  spec 
tacles.  Yet  they  did  not  misbecome  him.  He  beamed 
through  the  thick  lenses,  radiated  gladness  all  about  him 
and  his  presence  appeared  to  eliminate  from  the  Dictator's 
demeanour  any  trace  of  reserve,  all  suggestion  of  grimness 
in  leash.  Francia  looked  his  prospective  father-in-law  up 
and  down  and  laughed,  positively  laughed,  not  at  him,  but 
in  fellowship  with  his  effervescent  gaiety,  and,  as  Don 
Toribio  laughed  responsively,  they  were,  momentarily,  like 
two  lads  on  a  holiday. 


RIDDLES  585 

When  Don  Toribio  passed  on  he  joined  a  group  including 
Dr.  Parlett  and  after  exchanging  greetings  with  all  about 
him  requested  the  surgeon  to  do  him  the  favour  to  call  at 
his  house  the  next  day. 

"I  can  come  at  once/'  Parlett  proffered;  "any  one  ill?" 

"By  no  means,"  Don  Toribio  disclaimed;  "all  my  fam 
ily  are  in  the  best  of  health.  I  merely  wish  to  confer  with 
you,  Sefior  Don  Tomas,  about  a  trifling  matter  of  interest 
to  myself." 

Meanwhile  Francia  was  the  centre  of  a  convocation  of 
his  favourites  from  the  city  and  suburbs,  and  quite  as  agree 
able  to  them  as  they  to  him. 

"When  the  siesta  hour  drew  near  the  Dictator,  who  had 
unbent  entirely  to  his  juvenile  courtiers,  who  had  seemed  to 
enjoy  his  chat  with  General  Cabanas,  with  the  two  Casals 
and  with  Don  Vicente,  was  plainly  growing  weary.  There 
entered  the  sola,  the  most  gorgeous  butterfly  of  them  all, 
the  superlatively  handsome  and  universally  popular  guitar 
ist,  Don  Venancio  Lopez.  He  came  forward  with  his  most 
engaging  demeanour  and  smile,  and  the  Dictator  eyed  him 
almost  with  approval,  certainly  with  kindness. 

Suddenly,  when  he  was  not  three  yards  from  Francia, 
Lopez  whipped  out  his  rapier  and  made  a  powerful  and 
well-aimed  lunge  full  at  his  breast. 

It  was  Beltran,  standing  next  his  chief,  who  knocked  up 
the  sword,  which  tore  a  knot  of  bullion  from  one  of  the 
Dictator's  epaulettes. 

Francia  never  flinched  or  changed  countenance.  Nor 
did  he  speak  until  his  assailant  was  overpowered  and 
bound;  keeping  silence,  in  fact,  through  a  long,  awkward 
wait  until  four  soldiers  entered  in  charge  of  Ortellado  and 
haled  their  prisoner  off.  As  they  went,  he  briefly  said : 

' '  Put  him  in  the  first  empty  cell  under  the  cavalry  guard 
house.  ' ' 

To  the  assembly  he  spoke  soothingly,  winding  up  by 
saying : 

"I  am  about  to  dine  and  take  my  siesta.  I  particularly 
request  all  of  you  to  return  here  after  the  siesta  hour  and 
urge  all  your  acquaintances  to  do  the  like.  I  do  not  want 
my  levee-day  marred.  Let  us  all  conduct  ourselves  as  if 
nothing  had  happened." 

To  Beltran  he  said: 


586  EL   SUPREMO 

' '  Send  word  to  Ortellado  to  have  him  shot  an  hour  after 
sunrise.  Be  sure  he  has  a  priest,  but  let  no  one  else  speak 
to  him." 

(2) 

When  Parlett  called  at  the  Velarde  Mansion  the  next 
morning  Don  Toribio  greeted  him  even  more  effusively 
than  usual,  beamed  at  him  through  the  large  horn  frames 
of  his  spectacles,  and  after  they  had  partaken  of  snuff, 
mate  and  a  glass  of  wine  apiece,  and  had  lighted  their 
cigars,  he  said: 

''Senor  Don  Tomas,  I  have  a  sin  on  my  conscience.  A 
sin  not  of  commission,  but  of  omission.  You  will  recall 
that,  after  you  restored  to  me  my  sight,  you  were  so  courtly 
as  to  refuse  any  payment  for  your  invaluable  services  to 
me,  yet  so  kind  as  to  accept  a  trifling  gift  as  an  inadequate 
expression  of  my  gratitude. 

"My  sin  was  this:  that  gift  was  not  half  enough.  For 
when  I  made  it,  I  was  thinking  only  that  you  had  enabled 
me  to  see  the  world,  the  sky,  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars, 
the  landscape,  my  family,  my  fellow-men.  I  had  not  yet 
realised  your  most  precious  gift  to  me.  I  realise  it  now, 
and  to  enable  me  in  some  small  degree  to  requite  it,  to  some 
extent  to  indicate  my  sense  of  obligation,  I  beg  of  you  to 
let  me  relieve  my  mind  and  be  at  peace  with  myself  by 
accepting  this  also." 

Here  he  thrust  upon  the  astonished  doctor  a  second  big 
handful  of  golden  doubloons. 

Before  Parlett  could  find  his  voice,  he  leaned  toward  him 
and  explained: 

"Sefior  Don  Tomas,  do  you  realise  what  you  have  done 
for  me?  You  have  enabled  me  to  recognise  a  pretty  girl 
when  I  see  one." 

At  Dr.  Bargas'  wine-shop  that  afternoon  Parlett  was 
boasting  of  his  doubled  fee  and  narrating  and  repeating 
every  detail  of  the  interview.  No  one  could  guess  who  was 
the  pretty  girl  Don  Toribio  meant. 

Hawthorne  was  idling  his  afternoon  at  the  wine-shop, 
feeling  low-spirited  and  too  unhappy  to  occupy  himself 
actively  at  anything.  His  visits  to  Cecilia  had  been  on 
the  whole  depressing.  To  be  sure,  she  was  much  better  off 


RIDDLES  587 

in  the  cuartel  since  the  first  convoy  of  prisoners  had  been 
deported  to  Tevego,  as  that  had  swept  the  prison-yard  of 
the  trulls  and  hussies  and  left  her  not  only  with  more  free 
room,  but  with  less  unpleasant  fellow-prisoners.  Yet,  while 
she  expressed  her  gratitude  formally,  Hawthorne  felt  as 
far  away  from  her  as  ever.  In  such  a  mood  the  wine-shop 
was  his  only  resource.  Consulted  by  the  gathering  there, 
he  could  throw  no  light  upon  the  subject. 

But  he  learnt  the  truth  before  bedtime. 

As  usual,  a  delightful  tertulia  half -filled  the  patio  of  the 
Mayorga  mansion.  After  a  general  cross-fire  of  impromptu 
verses  mixed  with  puns  and  good-natured  railleries,  the 
party  spontaneously  broke  up  into  small  groups,  devoting 
themselves  to  cigars  and  conversation.  Hawthorne  was 
conversing  with  Carmelo  and  Rafael,  when  Carlota  and 
Leite  crossed  the  courtyard  and  said  to  their  brothers : 

"Desiderio  wants  to  speak  to  you. " 

They  then  occupied  the  vacated  chairs  and  Leite  began 
talking  to  some  one  on  the  other  side  of  her. 

Carlota,  after  some  rambling  chatter,  said  to  Hawthorne : 

"Seiior  Don  Guillermo,  you  remember  how  surprised  I 
was  when  you  first  described  to  me  the  customs  of  your 
country  and  told  me  that  many  times  there  a  young  man 
and  a  young  girl  are  friends  and  comrades  together  just 
as  if  they  were  two  girls  or  two  men  ? ' ' 

"Yes,  indeed,  Sefiorita,"  Hawthorne  assented.  "I  re 
call  your  comical  dismay,  as  it  were,  over  the  possibility." 

"You  told  me  also  that  either  of  such  a  pair  of  friends 
would  rejoice  over  the  other's  wedding  just  as  if  both  were 
men  or  girls  ? ' ' 

"Certainly/'  he  confirmed. 

"Well,"  sighed  Carlota,  "I  have  found  it  all  possible, 
even  in  Asuncion.  You  and  I  are  such  a  pair  of  friends, 
I  conceive,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo." 

"I  am  much  flattered,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "to  hear  you 
say  so.  We  have  had  many  pleasant  hours  together.  You 
have  taught  me  much  Guarani,  some  Spanish,  and  a  little 
guitar-music,  for  all  of  which  I  am  grateful.  But  I  have 
been  more  grateful  for  the  frank  comradeship  I  have  had 
with  you,  almost  as  with  Carmelo.  And  I  am  most  grate 
ful  of  all  for  your  expression  of  how  you  feel  for  me  and 
for  this  opportunity  to  express  my  feeling  to  you. ' ' 


588  EL   SUPREMO 


t  < 


Bravo !"  cried  Carlota.  I  was  so  sure  of  you  that  I 
made  Papa  and  Mama  and  all  of  them  keep  as  quiet  as 
mice,  so  that  I  might  have  the  satisfaction  of  telling  you 
myself,  like  a  New  England  girl.  I  am  going  to  be  mar 
ried  to-morrow  morning  at  the  church  of  the  Incarnation. 
You  are  to  be  there,  as  almost  a  member  of  the  family. 
Papa  says  so,  and  I  told  the  boys  to  make  sure. ' ' 

" To-morrow  morning!"  Hawthorne  exclaimed,  under 
his  breath.  ' '  How  can  that  be  ?  I  see  no  signs  of  prepara 
tion  or  of  excitement.  This  tertulia  is  like  any  other.  I 
should  expect  bustle,  not  only  to-night,  but  for  days  past, 
and  scores  of  presents  and  crowds  of  friends  to  congratu 
late  you." 

" Certainly, "  Carlota  agreed,  "that  is  what  I  almost 
miss.  But  Papa  says  that  when  a  girl  is  lucky  enough  to 
make  such  a  match  she  ought  to  be  willing  to  put  up  with 
her  bridegroom's  whims,  even  if  he  insists  that  no  one  must 
know  beforehand  except  the  family  and  gets  the  Bishop  to 
dispense  with  the  banns,  and  will  have  no  presents,  be 
cause  he  says  he  can  give  me  all  the  presents  I  need  and 
more  than  all  Asuncion  could,  which  is  true.  I  am  satis 
fied,  since  that  is  what  pleases  Toribio." 

"Toribio?"  Hawthorne  repeated,  conjeeturingly. 

"Yes,"  Carlota  rejoined,  sedately.  "I  am  going  to 
marry  Don  Toribio  Velarde." 

(3) 

The  very  day  following  Don  Toribio 's  wedding  festivi 
ties,  a  messenger  from  the  Palacio  brought  him  a  note, 
couched  in  terms  as  courtly  and  formal  as  if  he  and  Francia 
had  been  in  all  respects  equals,  requesting  the  favour  of  an 
interview  at  his  house  if  it  suited  his  inclination.  Not 
long  after  despatching  an  affirmative  reply  his  servants 
announced  the  Dictator  attended  by  Don  Beltran  Jaray. 
Both  were  in  tight  bright  new  regimentals  and  both  were 
very  pale.  Beltran,  who  spoke  no  word  except  the  cus 
tomary  greetings  and  farewells,  acted  as  the  best  friend 
traditionally  indispensable  in  Asuncion  to  any  suitor  when 
making  his  formal  request  to  his  prospective  father-in-law. 
On  their  side  Francia  did  all  the  talking. 

They  were  received  by  Don  Toribio  and  his  bride,  Car- 


RIDDLES  589 

lota,  as  much  the  mistress  of  her  mansion  as  if  she  had  been 
married  ten  years  and  as  if  she  were  ten  years  older  than 
her  step-daughter  instead  of  ten  years  younger.  Her  hus 
band  asked  her  advice  as  if  she  were  the  mother  of  his 
daughter  and  they  had  evidently  talked  the  matter  over 
thoroughly,  for,  in  the  course  of  remarking  that  they  had 
ceased  to  exist,  she  stated  his  reasons  for  delay  far  more 
tersely  and  neatly  than  could  have  been  possible  for  Don 
Toribio  himself.  He  dotingly  beamed  over  her  utterances, 
as  if  they  had  been  entirely  original  with  her,  and  agreed 
with  this  reflection  of  his  own  ideas  that  there  were  now 
no  causes  for  hesitation  nor  any  obstacle  to  Ventura 's  mar 
rying  a  life-Dictator. 

After  the  exchange  of  the  formal  pledges,  after  a  second 
round  of  mate,  wine  and  cigars,  Francia  was  plainly  med 
itating  his  departure. 

"I  presume,"  he  said,  "that  there  is  no  reason  why  we 
tehould  not  have  our  weekly  game  of  chess  to-morrow. " 

"None  whatever,"  Don  Toribio  assured  him,  heartily. 

"Ventura,  then,"  the  Dictator  summed  up,  "can  have 
twenty-four  hours  to  make  up  her  mind  on  what  day  she 
Would  like  to  be  married." 

Don  Toribio  assenting,  the  gentlemen  exchanged  pinches 
of  snuff  and  Francia  and  Beltran  took  their  leave  paler,  if 
ranything,  than  when  they  came. 

On  remounting  in  front  of  the  house  Francia  turned  to 
the  right,  kept  on  round  the  wall  of  the  Velarde  garden, 
forced  his  lean  sorrel  mare  to  wade  the  upper  end  of  the 
little  slough  behind  the  orchard  hedge,  kept  on  southeast- 
wards  till  they  passed  the  church  of  San  Roque,  fetched  a 
wide  circle  through  the  orange-shaded  lanes  south  of  that 
church,  came  back  through  the  deep  grass-banked  street 
below  the  Franciscan  monastery,  turned  past  the  Mayorga 
mansion  and  pulled  up  before  the  abode  of  Don  Antonio 
Kecalde,  next  door. 

A  mulatto,  with  two  good  eyes,  was  lounging  under  the 
archway.  At  sight  of  the  Dictator  he  fairly  sprang  to  his 
feet  with  something  like  smartness. 

Francia  beckoned. 

Instantly  the  breathless  mulatto  was  at  his  horse's  head. 

"Bribon,"  the  Dictator  demanded,  "is  your  master  at 
home?" 


5QO  EL   SUPREMO 

"Yes,  Carai,"  the  fellow  answered,  cringing. 

"Now  hearken  to  me,  Bribonazo,"  Francia  rasped,  "and 
pay  attention.  If  you  forget,  vary  or  add  one  word,  I  shall 
have  you  shot.  You  see  this  gentleman  with  me?  He  is 
Don  Beltran  Jaray.  Go  to  your  master  and  tell  him  that 
Don  Beltran,  accompanied  by  a  friend,  craves  the  favour  of 
an  interview.  Be  quick  with  his  reply. ' ' 

Before  Beltran 's  tall  roan  began  to  fidget  and  champ 
his  bit  the  messenger  returned.  Don  Antonio  would  re 
ceive  Don  Beltran  at  once. 

Which  he  did  with  commendable  suavity  and  self-com 
mand  though  a  good  deal  shaken  by  the  sight  of  the 
1  i  friend ' '  accompanying  Don  Beltran.  Dona  Tules  did  the 
honours  of  her  sola  with  some  little  trepidation. 

After  the  usual  compliments  and  refreshments  Beltran 
presented  his  second  formal  request  for  Angelica's  hand. 
Don  Antonio  looked  grave  and  embarrassed. 

"Don  Beltran,"  he  said,  "I  see  no  reason  for  beating 
about  the  bush.  You  are  the  most  desirable  son-in-law  in 
Paraguay,  and  I  acknowledge,  as  once  before  to  you,  the 
pact  between  myself  and  your  good  father.  But  I  may  as 
well  say  at  once  that  I  regard  that  compact  as  cancelled." 

Beltran  said  nothing,  but  Francia  bristled  up  angrily. 

' '  Do  you  mean  to  imply, ' '  he  demanded, ' '  that  you  rebuff 
a  suitor  who  brings  me  with  him  as  best  friend  ?  Do  you 
dare?" 

Don  Antonio  could  not  meet  fully  Francia 's  browbeat 
ing  stare:  but  he  tried,  tried  manfully. 

' '  I  should  dare  much  for  Angelica, ' '  he  said  gently.  ' '  I 
love  her  best  of  my  daughters,  I  admit,  and  have  her  wel 
fare  close  to  my  heart.  I  fully  intended  to  give  her  with 
my  blessing  to  Don  Beltran,  and  was  expecting  with  im 
patience  his  renewal  of  his  former  suit. 

"But  there  cannot  be  any  true  happiness  in  marriage 
without  love.  I  find,  to  my  surprise,  that  Angelica  is  deep 
ly  in  love  with  an  entirely  different  person.  That  alto 
gether  alters  my  views  as  to  marrying  her  to  Don  Beltran. 
Don  Beltran  himself,  who  has  the  kindest  feelings  towards 
Angelica,  will,  I  am  sure,  agree  with  me." 

"I  am  sure  he  will,"  Francia  burst  out,  "I  am  sure  I 
do.  This  is  an  unexpected  turn  of  events.  But  you  are 
perfectly  right.  I  agree  with  you  entirely." 


RIDDLES  591 

He  pursed  his  lips  and  nodded. 

1  'Don  Beltran,"  he  continued.  "I  conceive  that  there  is 
nothing  for  us  to  do  but  make  our  farewells." 
Beltran  bowed. 

' '  And  who, ' '  the  Dictator  queried,  ' '  is  the  lucky  lover  ? ' ' 
Don  Antonio  glanced  at  his  wife  and  then  replied : 
"Angelica's  intended  is  Don  Desiderio  Mayorga. " 
' '  Congratulate  him  from  me, ' '  Francia  trumpeted,  ' '  and 
from  Don  Beltran.     Assure  him  of  our  goodwill.     If  nec 
essary,  we  shall  both  attend  Senorita  Angelica 's  wedding  as 
an  earnest  of  our  amiability  and  approbation." 

After  more  mate,  wine  and  cigars  they  took  their  leave. 

(4) 

The  next  afternoon  Francia  and  Ventura  faced  each 
other  across  the  chess-board,  under  the  shadow  at  one 
side  of  the  narrow  patio,  while  near  the  other  end  of  the 
same  side  Don  Toribio  lolled  in  his  arm-chair,  Carlota,  with 
her  embroidery  hoop,  in  a  smaller  chair  beside  him. 

Francia  regarded  the  board. 

"I  am  playing  badly,"  he  said.  "You  have  won  the 
exchange  on  me  twice.  With  our  usual  odds,  that  leaves 
me  one  bishop  against  two  rooks.  I  shall  have  to  consider 
the  game  deeply. 

"Meanwhile  as  I  ponder  let  us  talk." 

"As  you  please,"  Ventura  agreed.  She  had  her  em 
broidery  hoop  in  hand. 

"Have  you  considered  what  day  would  suit  you  for  our 
wedding  day?"  the  Dictator  queried.  He  looked  almost 
handsome  as  he  spoke,  for  his  blue  uniform  coat  became 
him,  and  his  hair,  powdered  and  drawn  back  into  a  queue, 
made  his  face  appear  comparatively  young  and  pink. 

Ventura  drew  her  thread  tight,  regarded  him  calmly 
and  replied: 

"We  met  on  Saint  John's  Day,"  she  said.  "Let  u$  be 
married  on  Saint  John's  Day." 

"I  had  hoped,"  Francia  demurred,  "that  you  would 
name  an  earlier  date." 

"No  earlier  date  would  really  suit  me,"  Ventura  re 
joined,  "and  it  is  not  long  till  Saint  John's  Day  now." 

"Saint  John's  Day  therefore,"  said  Francia,  "let  it  be." 


592  EL   SUPREMO 

(5) 

Not  many  mornings  later,  as  she  was  leaving  the  Cathe 
dral  porch  after  early  mass,  Ventura  encountered  Beltran. 
She  was  a  trifle  surprised  to  see  him  there  and  at 
that  hour;  much  more  that  he  was  on  foot;  for  she  had 
never  seen  him  in  the  streets  of  Asuncion  except  on  horse 
back. 

Though  she  was  unfailing  in  her  churchgoing  and  as 
regularly  punctual  day  after  day  at  the  same  hour  and 
spot  as  the  shadow  of  the  Cathedral  tower,  Beltran  seemed 
astonished  at  sight  of  her.  He  stood  and  gazed  without 
any  word  or  gesture  of  greeting  as  if  she  were  an  appari 
tion. 

Ventura  eyed  him  calmly  as  she  approached  him  and, 
when  quite  near,  she  said : 

'  *  Senor  Don  Beltran,  are  you  asleep  in  broad  daylight  ? 
If  you  are  awake,  you  are  discourteous. ' ' 

Beltran  flushed,  whipped  off  his  plumed  cocked-hat, 
bowed  low  and  apologised,  saying: 

"Senorita,  I  was  indeed  remiss  to  look  at  you  without 
any  salutation/* 

He  bowed  again. 

Most  church-going  Asuncianas  wore  their  rebozos  so 
completely  muffling  head  and  face  that  scarcely  even  one 
eye  was  discernible.  Ventura  never  did.  Her  face  had 
been  entirely  visible  as  she  emerged  from  the  archway  of 
the  porch.  Now  she  pushed  her  rebozo  still  further  back, 
so  that  her  head  was  almost  entirely  free.  Two  crimson 
blossoms  emphasised  the  glossy  splendour  of  her  dark  hair. 
She  surveyed  Beltran  reproachfully. 

"Look!"  she  repeated  after  him.  "You  did  not  look, 
you  stared  as  if  you  had  never  set  eyes  on  me  before. ' ' 

Beltran  paled  after  his  flush. 

"That  is  precisely  how  I  felt,"  he  said.  "You  ap 
peared  to  me,  Senorita,  as  if  I  had  never  seen  you  before, 
as  if  I  then  saw  you  for  the  first  time. ' ' 

' l  That  sounds  very  strange ! ' '  Ventura  remarked. 

"It  felt  very  strange,"  said  Beltran  simply. 

"We  saw  each  other  daily  for  months  on  the  river,"  she 
commented;  "we  should  be  used  to  each  other's  appear 
ance  after  all  that  time  together  on  that  little  brig." 


DISSOLUTION  593 

"How  well  we  came  to  know  that  brig!"  Beltran  ex 
claimed. 

"Every  timber  and  spar  of  her,"  Ventura  concurred. 
"Every  rope  and  bolt." 

' '  And  yet, ' '  Beltran  spoke  vehemently,  "  if  we  had  sailed 
in  her  not  on  the  river  but  in  mid-ocean,  if  she  had  burned 
or  foundered  beneath  us,  if  from  some  lonely  treeless, 
waterless  rock,  from  some  frail  boat,  from  some  bit  of 
wreckage,  we  had  watched  for  her  final  disappearance, 
knowing  she  could  never  be  again  to  us  what  she  had  been, 
might  she  not  have  appeared  to  us  altogether  otherwise 
from  what  we  had  ever  seen  her  before,  might  she  not  have 
seemed  even  as  if  we  beheld  her  then  for  the  first  time?" 

Ventura's  glance  wandered. 

"Senor  Don  Beltran,"  she  said,  "you  speak  in  riddles." 

But  her  cheeks  were  redder  than  usual  as  she  dropped 
him  a  low  courtesy  and  passed  on. 

CHAPTER  XLII 

DISSOLUTION 
(1) 

THE  day  after  Hawthorne's  return  from  Atira  and 
Caacupe  was  bewilderingly  eventful.  He  had  ridden 
in  the  night  before  too  late  to  make  his  report  to  the  Pala- 
cio  but  presented  himself  promptly  in  the  morning.  Fran- 
cia  received  him  graciously  and  listened  to  his  glowing 
accounts^  of  the  condition  of  Yabi's  plantations  and  of 
Borda  's  iron-smelting,  taking  snuff  at  shorter  intervals  and 
in  larger  pinches. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "all  this  has  a  convinc 
ing  sound  and  promises  well.  Sup  with  me  to-night  at  our 
usual  hour  and  tell  me  more." 

At  the  entrance  to  the  patio  Benigno  Lopez,  waiting  his 
turn  for  an  audience,  stood  talking  to  Beltran.  The  lieu 
tenant  greeted  Hawthorne  in  rather  a  constrained  and 
abstracted  fashion,  markedly  different  from  his  normal 
manner. 

"Is  he  ill?"  Hawthorne  queried,  as  Don  Benigno  strode 
off  to  make  his  report  to  the  Dictator. 


594  EL   SUPREMO 

"Impossible!"  Beltran  exclaimed.  "No  Lopez  is  ever 
ill.  Since  Irala's  days  they  ride  and  fight  like  fiends,  wal 
low  in  debauchery  from  boyhood  on,  and,  unless  killed  by 
accident,  die  of  old  age,  hale  as  my  grandmother.  They 
never  know  pain,  ache  or  ailment.  Benigno  is  like  the  rest 
of  them." 

They  watched  him  pace  the  length  of  the  courtyard,  saw 
him.  salute  and  then,  all  in  a  breath,  saw  the  flash  of  his 
unsheathed  sabre,  saw  him  rush  venomously  towards  the 
seated  figure;  saw  Francia,  all  with  one  motion,  come  to 
his  feet,  disembarrass  himself  of  both  table  and  chair  and 
swing  his  blade  free,  saw  sabre  meet  sabre  and  heard  the 
ring  of  steel  on  steel. 

Both  started  to  run  and  simultaneously  Bopi,  a  palm- 
wood  club  in  his  hand,  appeared  noiselessly  from  under  the 
rear  arcade. 

The  clash  of  sabres  rang  faster  and  faster.  Hawthorne, 
as  he  ran,  saw  Lopez  jumping  about  like  a  terrier  worrying 
a  woodchuck,  but  saw  Francia 's  left  hand  up  and  down  like 
a  conductor's  baton. 

Before  any  of  the  three  could  reach  him  the  sword  flew 
from  the  lieutenant's  hand  and  clattered  tinkling  all  across 
the  pavement. 

Francia  aimed  a  terrific  slash  at  the  assassin's  head,  but 
swung  the  sabre  aside  in  midair. 

Lopez  leaped  back,  panting,  and  they  seized  him  by 
either  elbow. 

He  uttered  no  sound. 

Francia  exclaimed: 

"The  older  man  but  the  better  fencer!  I'll  see  the 
eclipse  of  1839  yet  in  spite  of  all  of  them." 

Zorilla  and  the  guard  came  running  not  much  behind 
Beltran.  When  Lopez  was  bound  Francia  said : 

"Take  him  out  and  shoot  him  at  once.  Don  Beltran, 
count  their  cartridges  and  see  they  use  no  more  than 
three." 

Hawthorne  stood  numb,  too  dazed  to  walk  off. 

The  Dictator  sat  down  heavily  and  glared  at  him,  breath 
ing  hard. 

"My  own  officer!"  he  cried.  "Whom  shall  I  trust? 
Whom  can  I  trust?" 

Then  he  laughed  mirthlessly,  staring  at  the  pavement. 


DISSOLUTION  595 

Presently  he  raised  his  head. 

"Do  not  forget  our  supper  to-night,  Don  Guillermo,"  he 
said ;  * '  we  must  ignore  life 's  inevitable  dangers  and  try  to 
be  calm  and  gay." 

Hawthorne  bowed  himself  off. 

(2) 

After  the  siesta  hour  Hawthorne  strolled  to  Dr.  Bargas* 
wine-shop  and  found  there  a  brilliant  throng  of  expectant 
idlers.  Against  its  background  of  raftered  roof,  rough 
walls,  tiers  of  casks,  heaps  of  tercios,  piles  of  serons  and 
ranks  of  pet  aeons,  the  picture  his  fellow-conspirators  made 
never  failed  to  strike  him  as  novel  and  startling.  He 
found  the  impression  as  keen  as  ever.  The  black  garbs 
of  the  few  doctors  of  laws  and  fewer  priests  served  merely 
to  emphasise  the  gaudy  hues  of  the  gay  velvets  and  satins, 
the  shine  of  many  white  silk  stockings,  the  glitter  of  gold- 
laced  waistcoats  and  of  their  tiny  buttons,  of  knee  breeches 
and  shoe-buckles,  of  sabre-guards  and  rapier  hilts,  the  bril 
liance  of  the  reds  and  greens,  the  yellows  and  blues  of  the 
rich  stuffs.  The  parti-coloured  spectacle  had  a  new  domi 
nant  note,  for,  besides  Dr.  Bargas,  half-seated  on  the  ta 
ble,  half  standing  by  it,  the  white  embroidery  on  his  crim 
son  poncho  the  most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  picture, 
was  Don  Lupercio  Velarde. 

Hawthorne  greeted  him  even  more  ceremoniously  than 
the  rest  and  expressed  his  amazement  at  seeing  him  there. 

"Oh,  I  am  a  patriot,"  Don  Lupercio  replied,  tossing 
back  his  becoming  grey  locks  from  his  youthful  pink  face. 
"I  am  a  patriot  and  first  of  all  for  the  patria;  therefore, 
I  have  also  been  for  the  existing  government,  whatever  that 
might  be.  But  am  I  to  stand  by  and  see  this  tinterillo 
marry  my  niece  ?  Not  I.  Therefore,  let  us  conspire ! ' ' 

"To  that  end,"  spoke  Cabanas,  "let  us  carefully  avoid 
any  appearance  of  order  or  of  meeting,  but  let  the  meeting 
now  come  to  order. ' ' 

There  was  a  momentary  silence ;  then  Don  Atanacio  con 
tinued  : 

"I  conceive  that  our  most  pressing  business  is  to  hear 
Don  Guillermo. " 

Hawthorne  thereupon  gave  a  succinct  account  of  what 


596  EL   SUPREMO 

had  been  accomplished  during  his  absence  towards  the  ac 
cumulation  of  materials  for  powder-making  and  gun-cast 
ing,  of  the  state  of  affairs  he  had  found  at  Caacupe  and 
Atira  and  of  the  prospects  for  the  future. 

He  wound  up  by  saying: 

" Powder  we  shall  have  in  plenty,  to  all  appearances; 
cannon-balls  are  a  simple  matter,  or  will  be  long  before  we 
have  the  cannon  to  hurl  them.  As  for  artillery,  I  do  not 
propose  to  bother  with  four-pounders  at  all.  I  mean  to 
begin  with  six-pounders  and  to  keep  at  them  till  I  have 
four  good  ones,  entirely  dependable.  By  that  time  I  shall 
have  put  all  my  experimental  failures  well  behind  me. 
Then  I  shall  proceed  to  cast  four  eight-pounders  and  four 
twelve-pounders.  I  am  certain  I  can  complete  them  in  good 
time.  Finally  then  I  shall  essay  my  most  difficult  task, 
the  making  of  a  pair  of  large  cannon. 

"I  shall  not  attempt  sixteen-pounders  at  all,  but  shall 
try  at  once  to  provide  us  with  two  eighteen-pounders ;  so 
that,  even  if  he  can  use  his  two  sixteen-pounders,  which  I 
greatly  doubt,  we  shall  have  the  advantage  of  him  in  both 
weight  of  metal  and  range  of  fire;  with  one  eighteen- 
pounder  at  the  upper  ford  of  the  Salado  and  the  other  at 
the  head  of  Lake  Ipacaray,  we  should  not  fail  to  hold  back 
his  troops  whichever  way  he  concentrates.  Once  they  are 
repulsed  we  should  be  able  to  advance  promptly  and 
steadily.'' 

When  he  paused  there  was  again  a  silence,  a  longer  si 
lence,  an  embarrassed  silence. 

Don  Hilarion  Decoud  sighed  a  deep  sigh. 

' l  We  must  remember, ' '  he  said,  ' '  that  in  one  respect  our 
antagonist  has  become  more  formidable.  One  of  his  many 
factors  of  strength  has  been  the  belief  among  the  Guar- 
anies,  ever  since  he  was  voted  supreme,  that  he  had  been 
made  omnipotent  by  enactment.  Now,  with  the  same  sim 
ple  faith  in  the  power  of  the  suffrage,  they  believe  that  he 
has  also  been  made  immortal  by  election.  As  El  Perpetuo 
they  believe  he  is  placed  above  the  reach  of  accident  or  dis 
ease,  that  nothing  can  kill  him  now." 

Don  Porfirio  Somellera  puckered  his  brows  and  spoke 
slowly. 

"It  seems  to  me/'  he  said,  "that  your  plan  for  cannon- 
casting  was  different  the  last  time  you  explained  it." 


DISSOLUTION  597 

"Who  does  not  alter  his  plans  as  time  goes  on?"  Haw 
thorne  retorted.  "What  plan  worth  having  does  not  im 
prove  as  it  unfolds  ? ' ' 

Gamarra  was  tugging  at  his  moustache  and  making  noises 
like  whispered  snorts.  He  burst  out: 

"It  is  a  year  since  you  set  this  conspiracy  on  foot.  And 
you  bid  us  wait  the  full  span  of  a  second  year,  full  twelve 
months  yet,  before  we  are  to  see  your  cannon  ready  and  to 
adventure  the  terrific  risk  of  raising  the  standard  of  revolt 
and  taking  the  field  from  Atira.  The  time  is  too  long. 
We  have  escaped  detection  for  a  whole  year  by  a  series  of 
miracles,  by  countless  miracles.  It  is  too  much  to  hope 
for  that  we  shall  remain  coherent  and  unsuspected  for  a 
second  year.  The  chances  of  exposure  are  so  many  that  we 
may  say  we  are  certain  to  be  betrayed.  No  matter  what 
our  courage  and  resolve  we  could  not  last  another  year. 
We  should  act  more  promptly." 

"Besides,"  cut  in  Don  Estanislao  Machain,  "the  plan  is 
not  only  slow,  but  clumsy.  Don  Guillermo  devises  yerba 
plantations  to  make  natural  the  casting  of  large  iron  pans, 
which  iron  pans  are  to  serve  as  a  blind  for  the  concealment 
of  ingots  of  iron,  which  ingots  are  to  be  used  to  cast  can 
non.  We  should  work  out  a  plan  not  only  quicker,  but 
simpler. ' ' 

Hawthorne  was  nettled  and  showed  it.  ' '  If  any  one, ' '  he 
said,  in  a  controlled  voice,  "has  a  plan  simpler  and  more 
expeditious,  I  shall  be  pleased  to  hear  of  it." 

"I  have  such  a  plan,"  spoke  Don  Lupercio,  "a  plan 
already  known  to  all  present  except  yourself,  Senor  Don 
Guillermo,  a  plan  approved  by  all. ' ' 

"Not  by  all,"  Cabaiias  interjected,  gently. 

"True,  Don  Atanacio,"  the  handsome  estanciero  admit 
ted;  "you  registered  your  disapprobation,  as  did  a  few 
others.  But  it  is  heartily  approved  by  a  great  majority  of 
us,  including  Don  Bernardo." 

The  aged  ex-Intendente  sighed. 

"Under  the  circumstances,"  said  he  shamefacedly,  "I 
must  allow  that  it  appears  the  most  hopeful." 

"Far  and  away  the  most  promising,"  Don  Lupercio  re 
sumed,  "and,  in  order  that  I  may  make  myself  clearer, 
permit  me,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  to  approach  the  point 
indirectly. 


598  EL   SUPREMO 


1  'Our  efforts  are  aimed  towards  the  establishment  in 
Paraguay  of  a  genuine  republic  ?  Is  not  that  true  1 ' ' 

"Certainly!"  Hawthorne  assented. 

"In  any  republic  truly  worthy  of  the  name  the  majority 
rules.  You  admit  that?" 

"I  more  than  admit  it,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "I  uphold 
it." 

Don  Lupercio  swung  his  silver-mounted  horn-tip  tinder- 
box  by  its  silver  chain. 

"I  know  the  proverb,"  he  said.  "But  let  us  assume, 
for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  that  we  are  as  certain  to  succeed 
as  the  sun  is  to  rise  to-morrow.  Imagine  us  fully  success 
ful,  what  becomes  of  our  antagonist?" 

Hawthorne  frowned. 

"He  might  be  killed  in  battle,"  he  answered,  "he  might 
escape,  he  might  surrender,  he  might  be  captured. ' ' 

Don  Lupercio  smiled  grimly. 

"Four  possibilities,"  he  said.  "Let  us  pass  by  the  first 
for  the  moment.  As  to  the  second,  escape  is  unthinkable. 
For  which  way  could  he  escape?  In  the  wildernesses  of 
the  Chaco  or  of  the  Brazilian  forests  he  must  perish  of 
disease  or  privation  even  should  he  avoid  the  lurking  sav 
ages;  anywhere  down  the  river  he  would  be  shot  as  soon 
as  recognised,  and,  anyhow,  once  the  despot  became  a 
hunted  fugitive  Lopez  would  turn  against  him  and  never 
let  him  past  Neembucu.  Which  leaves  us  to  consider  but 
one  contingency.  The  man  alive  in  our  hands,  what  would 
happen  to  him  then?" 

Hawthorne  frowned  more  darkly. 

"We  might  permit  him  to  go  into  exile,"  he  said,  "we 
might  banish  him  to  Forquilha  or  Voquita,  we  might  se 
clude  him  at  Curuguatay  or  Minangua,  we  might  permit 
him  to  retire  to  Ibirai  as  during  the  time  of  the  second 
junta." 

"We  might,"  put  in  Don  Eustaquio  Baiz,  "but  we  most 
indubitably  would  not  perpetrate  any  one  of  those  several 
follies." 

* '  We  certainly  should  not ! ' '  chorussed  Gamarra,  Yegros, 
Machain  and  a  dozen  more. 

"We  unquestionably  should  not,"  Don  Lupercio  af 
firmed,  ' '  and  for  the  best  of  reasons,  Senor  Don  Guillermo. 
That  is,  that  in  a  republic  the  majority  rules.  If  he  sur- 


DISSOLUTION  599 

rendered  or  were  captured  we  should  have  him  shot  as  he 
has  had  shot  scores  of  men  better  than  he.  We  Paraguay 
ans  are  unanimously  agreed  on  that.  The  admission  to 
which  I  have  been  leading  you,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo,"  he 
continued  suavely,  "is  that  in  any  case  whatever  our  con 
spiracy  leads  to  the  tyrant's  death,  that,  in  plain  words, 
stripped  of  ambiguities  and  obscurities,  our  conspiracy, 
the  conspiracy  you  set  on  foot,  is  a  plot  for  the  death  of 
Dr.  Francia." 

Hawthorne  meditated  in  the  ensuing  silence,  nodded  and 
spoke  huskily: 

"You  are  entirely  convincing,  Senor  Don  Lupercio,"  he 
said,  "but  I  do  not  flinch.  I  have  come  almost  to  love  the 
man,  but  I  hate  the  tyrant.  I  hold  that  no  one  man  should 
stand  in  the  way  of  a  nation's  freedom.  I  bow  to  the  will 
of  the  majority:  that  is  to  say,  if  the  circumstances  you 
forecast  ever  come  to  be  actualities,  if  then  a  majority  vote* 
as  you  prophesy,  I  shall  acquiesce/' 

Don  Lupercio  bowed  to  Hawthorne  and  cast  a  triune 
phant  glance  round  the  assemblage. 

"We  are  then  banded  together,"  he  resumed,  "to  com 
pass  the  death  of  Dr.  Francia.  Why  go  about  it  in  a  slow, 
laborious  and  risky  fashion,  when  we  could  proceed  by  a 
plan  safe,  certain,  easy  and  quick?  Pray  bear  with  me, 
Senor  Don  Guillermo,  and  hear  me  out.  To  begin  with,  let 
me  assure  you  that  collectively  and  individually,  we,  your 
associates  here  present,  have  had  no  complicity  in  any  of 
the  several  attempts  made  in  the  past  year  upon  the  Dic 
tator's  life,  nor  any  foreknowledge  of  any  one  of  them. 
That  made  clear,  let  me  admit  that  plans  for  our  enemy's 
removal  have  been  repeatedly  broached,  discussed  and  re 
jected,  of  all  which  proposals  I  was  informed  soon  after 
joining  your  league.  These  numerous  and  varied  projects 
were  all  disapproved  for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place, 
they  promised  no  better  chances  of  success  than  the  at 
tempts  at  revenge  of  Don  Venancio  Lopez  and  such  as  he. 
In  the  second  place,  each  involved  the  self-sacrifice  of  the 
chief  actor,  for  no  one  could  invent  a  plan  by  which  the 
instrument  of  vengeance,  even  if  successful,  could  hope  to 
effect  his  own  escape.  Therefore,  though  more  than  one  of 
jis  burned  to  offer  up  his  life  on  the  altar  of  liberty,  we 
.'aave  repressed  the  ardour  of  all  such  enthusiasts,  even  when 


6oo  EL   SUPREMO 

six  devoted  patriots  offered  to  vow  themselves  to  a  series  of 
well-considered  efforts. 

"It  has  remained  for  me,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  to  de 
vise  a  plan  which  cannot  fail,  after  the  accomplishment  of 
which  the  saviour  of  Paraguay  is  certain  to  escape  un 
scathed  and  free." 

Hawthorne's  disgust  was  plain  to  read  on  his  face. 
The  speaker's  complacent  periods  he  interrupted  indig 
nantly. 

"Senor  Don  Lupercio,"  he  said,  "I  decline  to  listen 
further.  I  am  amazed  to  hear  you  avow  the  abetting  and 
contriving  of  assassination." 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  the  estanciero  spoke  gravely, 
"I  beg  of  you  to  hear  me  to  the  end." 

"I  shall  hear  nothing  more  from  you,"  Hawthorne 
retorted  hotly,  "unless  you  answer  me  one  question, 
and  I'll  hear  no  more  then,  unless  the  answer  is  con 
vincing.  ' ' 

"Your  question,  Senor  Don  Guillermo?"  came  the 
courtly  response. 

"Why,"  Hawthorne  queried  insistently,  "have  you  dis 
carded  an  honourable  project  for  insurrection  and  open 
warfare  in  favour  of  an  underhand  scheme  for  cowardly 
assassination  ? ' ' 

Don  Lupercio  turned,  selected  a  cigar  from  the  small 
petacon  which  stood  on  the  table,  leaned  over  to  the  candle 
beside  it,  lit  his  cigar,  puffed  meditatively  and  then  ur 
banely  broke  the  uncomfortable  silence. 

"Because,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  even  should  your  or 
ganisation  succeed,  as  I  believe  it  would,  it  would,  along 
with  its  vast  and  worthy  objects,  succeed  in  ruining  my 
niece  together  with  her  husband.  My  plan  will  forestall 
his  ever  becoming  her  husband,  which  is  precisely  what  I 
am  most  concerned  to  prevent." 

Hawthorne  stood  up. 

"I  decline,"  he  said,  "to  be  any  longer  the  associate 
of  men  who  subordinate  public  policies  to  private  interests, 
still  more  of  men  who  meditate  assassination,  or  of  men 
who  abet  either. ' ' 

His  abhorrence  and  his  intention  to  depart  were  equally 
tmmistakabJe. 

The  choras  of  expostulation,  deprecation  and  dissuasion 


DISSOLUTION  601 

ftad  little  effect  on  him ;  the  general  outcry  that  in  this  case 
private  interest  tallied  completely  with  public  policy  rather 
urged  him  to  begone.  That  he  remained  and  reseated  him 
self  was  largely  due  to  some  tantalisingly  inscrutable 
meaning  he  read  in  the  silent  glances  of  Don  Gil  and  Don 
Arturo,  but  most  of  all  to  the  pathetically  appealing  tone 
in  which  Don  Bernardo  besought  him  to  listen  to  the  end. 
This  kept  him  seated  and  mute  in  spite  of  a  surging  tide 
of  inward  repugnance. 

Don  Lupercio  maintained  his  complacent  calm. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  went  on,  "our  arch-enemy 
has  his  informers  everywhere  in  Paraguay.  'Fight  the 
devil  with  fire'  is  a  good  old  proverb.  We  also  have  many 
spies  dogging  him;  a  perpetual  body  of  watchers  about 
the  Palacio,  and  more  than  one  informant  as  to  what  goes 
on  within  it.  We  have  learned  that  it  is  a  regular  feature 
of  the  Government-House  routine,  invariable  as  the  roast 
pigeon  and  wine  served  its  master  for  supper,  that  two  of 
his  best  horses,  two  of  the  speediest  and  most  mettlesome 
horses  in  Paraguay,  are  each  night  saddled,  bridled  and 
tethered  just  inside  the  small  side  gate  of  the  kitchen- 
garden,  close  to  the  top  of  the  bank  which  slopes  down  ta 
the  Riachuelo.  The  readiness  of  these  horses  is  never  neg 
lected.  Every  single  night,  without  exception,  this  is  done. 
They  are  always  ready,  always  at  the  same  spot. 

"We  have  also  learned  that  the  strong  door  of  the  gate 
way,  which  fits  accurately  into  the  opening  in  the  wall,  is 
fastened  only  with  the  two  bolts,  one  near  the  bottom,  the 
other  near  the  top.  It  is  provided  with  a  lock  and  a  pad 
lock,  but  neither  is  ever  locked  until  after  the  Doctor  has 
gone  the  round  of  the  Palacio,  secured  or  tested  all  the 
other  doors  and  listened  for  poor  petitioners  at  his  window 
under  the  mirador.  The  gate  of  the  kitchen  garden  he  in 
variably  locks  last  of  all  the  entrances  to  the  Palaeio. 

"It  is  plain  then  that  any  one  supping  with  him  might 
kill  him  at  supper  or  over  the  chess-board  and  make  his 
escape  on  one  of  the  horses  kept  ready,  since  the  gate  may 
always  be  unfastened  from  within. 

"It  is  known  to  us  that  you  yourself  rode  one  of  these 
horses  from  the  gate  of  the  kitchen  garden  to  Ibirai  on  the 
night  of  May  4th.  You  were  not  challenged  or  interfered 
with.  This  proves  either  that  he  has  no  watchers  with 


602  EL   SUPREMO 

orders  to  seize  any  man  except  himself  attempting  to  leave 
the  Palacio  on  one  of  these  horses,  or  else  that  if  such 
watchers  are  posted  they  have  instructions  to  let  you  pass. 

"No  Paraguayan  is  as  quick  with  a  pistol  as  our  arch 
enemy,  few  are  as  quick  with  a  sabre.  But  you,  Seiior 
Don  Guillermo,  as  you  have  often  demonstrated  in  friendly 
tests  of  rivalry,  are  quicker  with  both  kinds  of  weapon  than 
any  man  in  this  part  of  the  world.  You  are  admitted  to 
sup  with  the  autocrat,  to  sit  opposite  him  while  he  concen 
trates  all  his  attention  upon  his  chessmen.  You  came  to 
Paraguay  to  overthrow  the  despot,  you  have  organised  a 
conspiracy  whose  only  reason  for  existence  is  to  compass 
his  death.  You  burn  to  rescue  Paraguay  from  the  tyrant. 
I  have  pointed  the  way,  only  help  us  as  I  have  outlined 
and  your  success  is  certain.  Your  escape,  too,  is  assured. 
You  have  only  to  press  on  from  Ibirai  to  Atira  and  return 
the  next  day  to  accept  the  plaudits  and  acclaims  which  the 
gratitude  of  Paraguay  redeemed  will  shower  upon  her  de 
liverer.  The  prisons  will  be  set  open  and  you  may  point 
out  as  many  prisoners  as  you  choose  for  permanent  libera 
tion.7' 

The  suggestion  of  self-interest  in  this  rather  clumsy 
allusion  to  Cecilia  acted  as  a  spark  to  fire  Hawthorne 's  New 
England  conscience  and  explode  his  repressed  abomination 
of  what  he  was  hearing. 

Angrily  he  leapt  to  his  feet. 

"What?"  he  cried.  "You  not  only  talk  assassination 
to  me,  but  select  me  as  your  tool?  You  imagine  me  an 
assassin  ? ' ' 

"Not  an  assassin,"  Don  Lisardo  soothed  him,  his  voice, 
even  more  than  usual,  clerically  orotund.  "Not  an  assas 
sin,  Senor  Don  Guillermo.  We  figure  you  as  the  saviour 
of  Paraguay." 

Hawthorne,  his  face  eloquent  of  loathing,  made  to  depart. 

Again  he  was  persuaded  to  delay,  and  again  largely  by 
sympathy  for  Don  Bernardo's  distressed  eagerness. 

There  followed  a  lengthy,  tumultuous  and  acrimonious 
discussion,  participated  in  by  nearly  every  one  present 
•except  Cabanas. 

Hawthorne  was  completely  baffled.  He  could  not  make 
one  of  his  hearers  appreciate  his  point  of  view  or  compre 
hend  his  attitude  of  mind,  or  so  much  as  credit  that  he 


DISSOLUTION  603 

really  felt  as  he  talked.  To  them  any  one  method  of  rid 
ding  Paraguay  of  Francia  seemed  quite  as  honourable  as 
any  other.  Assassination  or  revolt  they  judged  merely  by 
valuing  their  comparative  difficulty  or  hazard. 

Over  and  over  he  brought  forward  arguments  such  as: 

' '  Can  you  not  see  that  men  capable  of  organising  a  pro 
visional  government,  starting  an  insurrection  and  pressing 
on  to  victory  in  open  warfare  prove  themselves  capable  of 
giving  a  republic  the  right  sort  of  management;  whereas 
men  who  stoop  to  plot  assassination  give  no  promise  of  any 
powers  of  statesmanship  or  administration?" 

Over  and  over  one  or  the  other  of  his  associates  replied 
somewhat  in  this  fashion: 

* '  Can  you  not  see  that  Paraguay  cannot  be  free  without 
this  man's  death,  no  matter  what  else  happens;  that  his 
death  frees  Paraguay  without  anything  else  happening?" 

When  they  were  unable  to  move  him  and  realised  they 
had  failed,  his  auditors  were  dazed  and  hysterical,  incredu 
lous  that  he  could  help  them,  could  accomplish  in  a  moment 
all  they  sought  for,  and  yet  would  not  set  his  hand  to  what 
they  looked  upon  as  an  easy  and  simple  task. 

When  the  deadlock  was  complete  Parlett  appeared  in  the 
doorway.  Into  the  instant  silence  he  spoke : 

"I  can  keep  watch  a  moment  here  out  of  the  tail  of  my 
eye.  You'll  get  no  further  forward,  Brother  Jonathan. 
You  might  just  as  well  give  it  up.  They'll  never  under 
stand  you  or  you  them.  They  're  Spanish  and  you  're  Saxon. 
That 's  all  there  is  to  it.  It 's  the  nature  of  a  Spaniard  to  be 
secretive  and  treacherous,  it's  the  nature  of  a  Saxon  to  be 
open  and  above  board.  You  can't  alter  their  natures  or 
yours.  Better  give  it  up." 

That  brought  Hawthorne  finally  to  his  feet. 

"I  refuse  any  longer,"  he  said,  "to  associate  with  as 
sassins.  Conspire  without  me.  I  bid  you  farewell." 

"You  may  find  it  easier,"  spoke  Somellera,  "to  bid  us 
farewell  than  to  depart." 

'  *  Who  dare  try  to  stop  me  ? "  retorted  Hawthorne,  trucu 
lently. 

"Oh,  let  him  go,"  cut  in  Machain;  "we  can  do  better 
without  him,  as  I  have  told  you  before.  He  is  not  the  only 
chess-player  in  Paraguay,  not  the  only  supper-guest  at  the 
Palacio.  Let  him  go,  Porfirio!" 


EL   SUPREMO 

"You  are  mad,  Estanislao, ' '  Somellera  rejoined.  "Let 
him  go  straight  to  the  Palacio  to  hand  the  tyrant  a  list  of 
our  names?" 

"Senor  Don  Porfirio,"  Hawthorne  retorted  indignantly, 
"I  have  taken  the  same  oath  of  secrecy  which  binds  you. 
No  word,  look,  act  or  silence  of  mine  shall  ever  help  betray 
or  incriminate  any  one  of  you." 

"Does  any  one  believe  this  farce?"  Gamarra  roared. 
*l  Manifestly  we  have  here  a  tool  of  the  despot,  as  I  have 
maintained  from  the  start.  His  cunning  has  led  us  on, 
hut  his  reluctance  to  be  of  real  service,  the  first  time  a  real 
chance  offered,  has  unmasked  him.  Shall  we  let  him  escape 
to  inform  on  us?" 

"Rogelio!"  spoke  up  Dr.  Bargas.  "What  do  you  in 
tend?" 

"I  purpose,  Jenofonte,  to  make  certain  his  silence  by 
killing  the  traitor  here  and  now, ' '  Gamarra  blustered, ' '  and 
the  rest  are  of  the  same  mind." 

"You'll  kill  no  guest  of  mine  on  my  premises,"  Dr. 
Bargas  declared. 

"Pooh!"  snarled  Gamarra.  "You've  had  brawls  here 
"before  this,  Jenofonte,  and  corpses  carried  out  afterwards 
and  no  questions  asked.  The  authorities  never  investigate 
settlements  of  difficulties  between  gentlemen.  I  have  been 
in  brawls  before  and  have  killed  my  man  and  was  never 
called  to  a  reckoning." 

Dr.  Bargas  visibly  swelled  like  an  angry  turkey-cock. 

* '  For  shame,  Rogelio, ' '  he  protested.  '  *  I  am  not  thinking 
of  my  reputation  or  of  that  of  my  shop.  I  mean  I  shall 
defend  with  my  life  the  safety  of  my  friend  and  guest, 
Don  Guillermo  Atorno." 

"Merely  a  worse  brawl,  Jenofonte,"  hissed  Somellera, 
"and  two  corpses  instead  of  one.  You  cannot  hope  single- 
handed  to  thwart  us  all. ' ' 

' '  Not  all ! "  spoke  Cabanas  crisply.  1 1  Not  single-handed.  * ' 

' '  You,  too,  Atanacio ! ' '  Gamarra  bellowed.  ' '  We  '11  make 
it  three  corpses ! ' ' 

"Count  higher,  Seiior  Don  Rogelio,"  cut  in  Rafael 
Mayorga,  in  a  perfectly  audible  whisper. 

"Higher  yet!"  added  Desiderio,  which  words  were 
echoed  by  Don  Gil  and  Don  Arturo,  each  in  turn. 

Carmelo,  who  had  not  spoken,  drew  his  rapier. 


DISSOLUTION  605 

Gamarra  glared  about  him,  his  hand  on  his  sabre-hilt. 
Every  man  in  the  room  had  his  hand  on  his  sword-hilt, 
many  held  their  weapons  half  clear  of  their  sheaths. 

The  voice  of  Dr.  Parlett,  jeering,  but  barely  half  drunk, 
sounded  from  the  doorway. 

"Roger,  my  lad,"  he  said,  "you've  a  massacre  on  your 
hands.  After  youVe  made  mincemeat  of  Casa  Mayorga 
you'll  have  to  make  hogshead  cheese  of  me.  And  I'm 
thinking  there's  more  than  one  or  two  besides  that  will 
stand  by  Don  Atanacio.  You'd  best  let  little  Willy  go 
home,  if  he  wants  to." 

That  sobered  the  assemblage  instanter.  Carmelo  sheathed 
his  rapier  last  of  all. 

Hawthorne  bowed  to  the  gathering  at  large. 

' '  Believe  me,  gentlemen, ' '  he  said,  '  *  it  grieves  me  to  cut 
myself  off  from  you.  Before  I  go  let  me  reiterate  my 
pledges  of  lifelong  secrecy.  From  now  on  I  cease  to  be  a 
member  of  this  association.  Farewell." 

"One  moment,"  spoke  Cabanas  authoritatively.  "I  beg 
of  you,  Sefior  Don  Guillermo,  to  remain  long  enough  to  wit 
ness  my  resignation.  Gentlemen  all,  I  am  no  longer  presi 
dent  of  your  provisional  republic,  nor  so  much  as  your 
associate." 

Bedoya  towered  to  his  full  height. 

"I  move,"  he  said  evenly,  "that  this  association  be 
hereby  dissolved  forever." 

"I  second  the  motion,"  spoke  Don  Jacinto  Ruiz. 

"I  object,  Don  Saturnino,"  Machain  cut  in.  "Why 
should  we  dissolve  when  we  have  better  hopes  of  success 
without  Don  Guillermo  than  with  him?" 

"Your  venom  blinds  you,  Estanislao,"  breathed  Padre 
Melquiades. 

"I  demand  a  vote,"  Bedoya  insisted. 

There  arose  a  babel  of  voices,  of  cries  of: 

"How  will  the  contributions  be  redistributed?"  of  gen 
eral  discussion  which  Cabanas  checked.  Into  the  lull  Haw 
thorne  spoke  again. 

"I  bid  you  farewell,  gentlemen,"  he  said. 

"Let  us  accompany  you,  Don  Guillermo,"  chorussed 
Don  Gil,  Don  Arturo  and  the  three  Mayorgas. 

"I  thank  you,  gentlemen,"  Hawthorne  replied,  "but  it 
seems  to  me  that  you  should  participate  in  this  argument. 


606  EL   SUPREMO 

Moreover,  I  am  unwilling  for  there  to  be  any  appearance 
of  my  being  unable  to  care  for  myself  anywhere  in  Asun 
cion,  indoors  or  abroad." 

After  another  bow  he  pushed  past  Parlett  and  went  out. 

(3) 

From  the  door  of  the  wine-shop  Hawthorne  turned  to  his 
right,  intent  on  reaching  his  domicile  and  conferring  with 
his  host  as  quickly  as  possible.  His  directest  route  was 
along  Calle  Espinosa,  round  the  corner  of  the  block  of 
mean  houses  on  its  north  side,  between  its  end  and  the 
swampy  broadening  of  the  upper  Eiachuelo,  across  the 
fourth  Jesuits'  bridge  and  thence  by  Calle  Comercio. 
"When  he  had  picked  his  way  along  the  narrow  track  be 
tween  the  slough  and  the  blank  housewall  and  just  as  he 
set  foot  on  the  small  expanse  of  dry  ground  by  the  bridge, 
a  triangle  of  bare  earth  barely  forty  feet  along  each  side, 
be  found  himself  confronted  by  the  two  brothers  Carbonel, 
roused,  apparently  at  sight  of  him,  from  lounging  on  the 
little  bridge. 

Eoused  they  were  and  instanter  at  the  frothing  point  of 
Catalan  fury.  Jabbering  at  the  top  of  their  voices,  they 
rushed  at  him,  spouting  torrents  of  epithets,  objurgations 
and  abuse. 

Hawthorne  afterwards  told  the  Mayorgas  that  he  was 
never  so  completely  surprised  in  his  life.  He  stood  half 
stunned,  dumbfounded  most  of  all  because  the  enraged 
brothers  both  appeared  to  assume  that  he  was  entirely 
aware  of  what  they  were  talking  about  and  why.  At  first 
he  could  make  nothing  of  their  cataracts  of  gibberish,  but 
gradually  he  comprehended  that  the  pair  had  been  over 
whelmed  by  calamities  of  which  they  considered  him  the 
cause.  The  absurdity  of  this  notion  bewildered  him  still 
more,  and  he  listened,  half  dazed,  to  their  cascades  of  vi 
tuperation.  Slowly  he  came  to  comprehend  that  their 
expedition  to  the  yerbales  had  turned  out  badly,  their 
stay  there  had  been  prolonged  through  eight  months  in 
stead  of  six,  their  pack  of  yerba  had  been  below  their  ex 
pectations,  both  in  quantity  and  quality;  ill-luck  had  pur 
sued  them  on  their  return  journey  and  return  voyage,  their 
sales  had  netted  them  a  bare  profit,  and  finally  that,  what 


DISSOLUTION  607 

with  liquor  and  cards,  they  found  themselves  penniless. 
For  all  of  which  misfortunes  they  blamed  Hawthorne. 

He  could  have  laughed  aloud  at  this  ridiculous  folly,  but 
his  situation  was  far  from  laughable.  The  infuriated  pair 
were  entirely  serious  in  their  allegations,  and  demanded 
reparation  as  positively  as  if  he  had  robbed  them  of  cash 
or  refused  to  repay  a  loan.  Their  volubility  was  but  the 
prelude  to  a  murderous  onslaught,  and  he  inwardly  con 
gratulated  himself  that  at  least  they  were  Catalans  and 
garrulous.  Basques  or  Andalusians  would  have  stabbed 
first  and  talked  afterwards,  or  not  at  all.  Stabbing,  as 
things  were,  was  not  far  off  if  his  answer  to  their  demands 
was  not  to  their  taste.  An  affray  with  two  Catalans,  fully 
half  sober  and  strong  as  bullocks,  practised  at  fighting  with 
their  long  knives,  and  considering  anything  permissible  by 
which  they  might  disable  an  antagonist,  was  an  affair  of 
extreme  danger.  Hawthorne  felt  that  his  position  was  des 
perate.  The  three  were  alone ;  he  could  not  hope  to  retreat 
by  the  contracted,  slippery  foot-path  between  the  wall  and 
the  bog ;  to  reach  the  narrow  bridge  he  must  pass  his  adver 
saries. 

He  was  saved  merely  because  the  brothers  differed  as  to 
what  constituted  their  chief  grievance  against  him.  In 
general,  both  agreed  that  he  was  to  blame  for  all  their 
troubles,  as  if  he  had  cast  an  evil  spell  over  them.  But 
Pablo  emphasised  his  belief  that  Hawthorne 's  presence  with 
them  had  caused  him  to  choose  a  bad  location  for  yerbar 
gathering,  while  Pedro  dwelt  on  some  myth  of  a  vast  re 
ward  offered  for  the  apprehension  of  Felicien  Abendano, 
and  maintained  that  it  should  have  been  his,  alleging  that 
it  had  been  pocketed  entire  by  Hawthorne. 

As  he  stood  silent,  their  fury  somehow  kindled  against 
each  other  over  their  difference  of  opinion.  They  raged  at 
each  other,  drew  their  knives,  clinched,  slipped,  and  rolled 
down  the  low  bank  into  the  slough,  where  Hawthorne  left 
them  mired  and  clawing  at  each  other,  but  both  together 
shouting  and  yelling  after  him,  as  he  went,  dire  threats  of 
vengeance,  if  ever  they  got  him  in  their  power  again. 


608  EL   SUPREMO 


(4) 

Over  their  supper  that  evening  Hawthorne  told  Francia 
of  his  encounter  with  the  Carbonel  brothers.  Francia,  his 
pigeon-bone  held  in  air  between  his  left  thumb  and  fore 
finger,  gazed  at  vacancy  in  silence. 

"I  don't  want  you  knifed/'  he  remarked,  "especially  at 
this  interesting  crisis,  with  iron-smelting  merrily  going 
forward  and  yerla  looming  large  in  the  background.  Yet  I 
can't  arrest  these  Carbonel  maniacs  just  because  they  may 
be  watching  for  a  chance  to  murder  you.  Catalans  are  so 
uncertain;  some  are  vindictive  and  pertinacious  as  your 
own  Iroquois,  others  are  light-headed  and  unsteadfast  as 
weather-cocks.  These  brothers  may  have  forgotten  all 
about  you  already.  So  I  hesitate  to  incarcerate  them.  But 
you  should  be  as  wary  as  if  you  were  alone  in  the  Gran 
Chaco  and  heard  a  jaguar  in  the  underbrush." 

"I  hold  the  same  views,"  Hawthorne  agreed.  "I  could 
not  expect  you  to  imprison  the  Carbonels  for  my  benefit 
on  my  mere  word.  But  I  want  your  permission  to  take  a 
precaution  you  yourself  suggested  to  me." 

"When?"  Francia  queried. 

"When  we  were  talking  about  the  Chilabers." 

"The  Chilabers!"  Francia  cried.  "Who  has  told  you 
about  the  Chilabers?" 

1  i  You  told  me  yourself, ' '  Hawthorne  replied. 

"I?"  the  Dictator  ejaculated.  "Am  I  insane,  or  are 
you  ?  I  '11  swear  I  have  not  mentioned  the  Chilabers  to  any 
living  being,  or  alluded  to  them." 

"It  was  across  this  very  table,"  Hawthorne  maintained, 
"one  evening  last  June." 

"Oh,  last  June!"  Francia  exclaimed,  in  a  changed  tone, 
enlightened.  "That  was  when  you  persuaded  me  to  let 
them  go. ' ' 

"Earlier  than  that,"  Hawthorne  explained.  "It  was 
when  I  was  trying  to  persuade  you  to  let  me  take  them  out 
of  prison,  put  them  on  a  vessel  at  anchor,  and  get  them  a 
doctor." 

"Yes,"  Francia  admitted,  "I  remember.  But  what  in 
particular  did  I  say  that  applies  to  the  Carbonels?" 

1 '  You  said, ' '  Hawthorne  replied,  '  *  that  there  might  have 


DISSOLUTION  609 

been  Catalans  on  the  polacca,  that  Don  Diego  might  have 
given  one  some  offence,  and  that  he  might  therefore  have 
carried  a  naked  poniard  inside  his  coat  to  be  prepared  to 
defend  himself,  as  a  Catalan  intent  on  murder  would  be 
too  quick  for  him  if  he  tried  to  draw  his  hanger. ' ' 

"I  recall  that  also/'  the  Dictator  assented,  "and  I  think 
I  conjecture  your  meaning.  You  used  the  word  'permis 
sion.  '  You  want  my  leave  not  only  to  carry  a  bare  poniard 
inside  your  coat,  but  to  carry  it  even  when  you  visit  me. 
Is  that  it?" 

"Just  that,"  Hawthorne  affirmed. 

Francia  regarded  him  quizzically. 

"It  seems  a  suggestion  equally  natural  and  startling. 
Let  us  postpone  settling  it. ' ' 

When  they  went  into  the  library  to  play  chess  the  Dic 
tator  curtly  commanded : 

"Light  all  the  candles." 

"While  Hawthorne  was  busy  carrying' out  the  order,  he 
rummaged  in  his  bufete,  his  back  to  all  the  rest  of  the  room. 
When  Hawthorne  set  again  in  its  place  the  candle  with 
which  he  had  lighted  the  others,  Francia  went  on  rum 
maging,  merely  directing  over  his,  shoulder : 

"Take  your  place  at  the  chess-board,  and  set  up  the 
men,  Don  Guillermo." 

As  Hawthorne  adjusted  the  last  man,  the  Dictator  turned 
and  came  towards  him,  carrying  by  its  tip  a  beautiful  dag 
ger  of  the  finest  workmanship.  It  had  a  fiat  cross-guard,  an 
ideal  design  to  make  no  bulge  inside  a  coat. 

"Take  it,"  Francia  snapped,  in  his  curtest  manner. 
"Sleep  with  it  under  your  pillow,  and  carry  it  wherever 
you  go.  It  is  yours." 

Hawthorne,  astounded,  managed  to  express  his  thanks 
in  a  matter-of-fact  manner,  and  slipped  the  weapon  inside 
his  coat. 

They  played  game  after  game  in  silence. 

When,  late  at  night,  Francia  let  Hawthorne  out  of  the 
main  entrance  of  the  Palacio,  he  said : 

"Be  sure  to  sup  with  me  again  to-morrow  night,  Don 
Guillermo.  I  want  more  chess  and  we  shall  have  much  to 
talk  over." 


6io  EL   SUPREMO 

CHAPTER   XLIII 

AMNESTY 

(i) 

NEXT  day  at  dawn  all  Asuncion  heard  the  squealing 
fifes  and  rolling  drums  pass  from  street  to  street 
heralding  the  reading  of  a  decree.  In  the  Plaza,  in  the 
Market  Place,  before  the  Cabildo,  before  every  church  in 
the  city,  at  every  street-corner,  the  bcwdo  was  read  aloud. 
Upon  pain  of  death,  with  confiscation  of  every  bit  of  prop 
erty,  all  laymen  of  full  Spanish  blood,  born  outside  of  Par 
aguay,  old  and  young  alike,  even  to  the  lads,  must  assemble 
in  the  Cathedral  Square  before  ten  o'clock  of  that  very 
day. 

As  the  purport  of  the  bando  was  made  known  in  each 
Spanish  household,  the  patio  became  filled  with  the  sound 
of  wailing  and  sobbing,  for  every  wife  declared  that  her 
husband  was  certain  to  be  shot  along  with  his  fellow- 
Spaniards.  The  men,  some  with  -the  philosophy  of  high 
birth  and  ancestral  breeding,  but  most  with  but  a  poor 
counterfeit  of  it,  attempted  to  soothe  and  comfort  their 
distracted  women-folk.  All  punctiliously  arrayed  them 
selves  in  their  best  attire,  in  court-suits  or  gala  costumes, 
and  repaired  at  once  to  the  Plaza. 

There  they  found  a  cordon  of  soldiers  extending  from 
the  Cathedral  tower  to  Calle  Comercio,  along  the  Plaza- 
side  of  the  street,  out  into  the  Plaza  to  the  dry  gully,  from 
there  curving  around  to  the  brink  of  the  bank  above  the 
bathing-shore  and  thence  along  to  the  other  corner  of  the 
Cathedral  front.  Inside  this  band  of  military  they  were 
bidden  to  assemble. 

There  might  be  seen  Don  Gregorio  de  la  Cerda,  Don 
Bernardo  Velasco,  Don  Jose  Carisimo,  Don  Cristobal  de 
Maria,  Don  Baltasar  Figueredo,  Don  Antonio  Eecalde,  Don 
Pascual  Echagiie,  Don  Mauricio  Zelaya,  Don  Gil  Romero, 
Don  Arturo  Balaguer,  Don  Meliton  Isasi,  Don  Vicente 
Mayorga,  Dr.  Jenofonte  Bargas  and  many  more,  to  the 
number  of  over  two  hundred. 

In  the  broiling  sun  they  were  kept  standing  until  nearly 
noon,  the  first  comers  for  more  than  four  hours. 


AMNESTY  611 

The  Doctors  of  Laws  formed  a  group  together,  conjec 
turing  their  prospects  of  execution,  imprisonment,  banish 
ment,  fine  or  mere  reprimand.  The  consensus  was  gloomy. 
Don  Eustaquio  Baiz  was  gloomiest  of  all.  The  others  tried 
to  cheer  him  up,  Don  Larios  Galvan  pointing  out  that  they 
might  just  as  well  have  been  arrested  in  their  homes  and 
lodged  at  once  in  the  public  prison  or  even  in  the  dungeons, 
Don  Jacinto  Ruiz  taking  the  same  view,  and  Don  Fer 
nando  de  la  Mora  concurring.  But  Don  Hilarion  Decoud 
was  inclined  to  agree  with  Baiz.  As  they  were  discussing 
their  situation,  they  were  joined  by  that  very  bald  man, 
Don  Bermudo  Larreta.  He  greeted  them,  and  remarked : 

'  *  I  do  not  see  Porfirio  anywhere. ' ' 

"True,"  Don  Larios  ejaculated.  "I  have  not  seen  him 
to-day.  He  should  be  here,  of  course.  Can  he  have  defied 
the  decree?  Or  could  he  have  missed  hearing  the  bando?" 

This  started  a  fresh  discussion.  While  they  were  deep 
in  it  a  drum-beat  sounded  close  to  the  church-porch.  All 
turned  that  way. 

Directly  in  front  of  the  main  door,  under  the  middle 
arch  of  the  porch,  was1  set  an  old  heavily-carved  elbow- 
chair.  In  it  sat  Don  Gumesindo  Estagarribia,  his  feet  in 
gaily  embroidered  slippers,  his  legs  encased  in  black  silk 
hose  and  black  satin  knee-breeches,  his  capacious  paunch 
covered  with  a  great  expanse  of  yellow  waistcoat,  gold-laced 
and  gold-embroidered,  his  costume  completed  by  a  porten 
tous  coat  of  mazarine  blue  silk,  with  a  cambric  handker 
chief  protruding  from  the  breast-pocket. 

On  either  side  of  him  stood  a  mulatto  girl,  each  with  a 
silver  salver,  one  bearing  a  silver  mate  cup  and  bombttla, 
the  other  a  richly  chased  silver  censer,  containing  charcoal 
perfumed  with  pastttla,  beside  which  lay  a  dozen  choice 
cigars. 

As  the  roll  of  the  drum  drew  the  attention  of  the  Span 
iards  to  him,  he  was  just  setting  down  his  mate  cup  and 
taking  a  puff  of  an  already  lighted  cigar. 

One  of  the  soldiers  beside  the  drummer  called  out  in 
Guarani : 

"Approach!  Carai  Estagarribia  desires  to  address 
you!" 

When  they  had  ranged  themselves  closely  before  him, 
Estagarribia  ostentatiously  took  snuff,  sipped  his  mate, 


612  EL   SUPREMO 

puffed  his  cigar,  and  glared  at  the  assembled  Spaniards. 
Then  he  burst  out  in  his  coarse  Creole  Castilian : 

"You  are  all  traitors,  that  is  to  say,  you  are  treacherous; 
in  other  words,  you  are  treasonable;  or,  to  put  it  plainly, 
you  are  disloyal ;  in  short,  you  are  not  enthusiastic  for  the 
independence  of  Paraguay;  in  one  word,  you  are  luke 
warm  towards  the  welfare  of  our  existing  form  of  govern 
ment. 

"Can  you  hear  me?  Do  I  make  myself  heard?  Am  I 
audible  to  all  of  you  ?  Do  I  make  myself  clear  ? 

"You  are  Vandals,  I  say;  Goths,  barbarians,  brutes,  ani 
mals,  beasts! 

"Do  you  understand  me?  Can  you  comprehend?  Can 
you  follow  me  ?  Are  you  paying  attention  ? 

"You  have  no  sense,  no  wisdom,  no  intelligence,  no  sa 
gacity,  no  acumen,  no  perspicacity,  no  discernment,  no  dis 
crimination,  no  judgment. 

"You  do  not  perceive  the  impracticability,  the  unfeasi- 
hility,  the  impossibility,  the  hopelessness,  the  absurdity,  the 
inconceivability,  the  unimaginability,  of  any  attempt, 
effort,  venture,  or  endeavour,  to  impair,  assail,  weak 
en,  injure,  damage,  mar,  ruin  or  destroy  the  ascen 
dancy,  power,  authority,  domination,  or  sway  of  our 
Supreme  Perpetual  Dictator;  the  insuperability  of  his 
puissance. 

' '  You  are  the  natural  enemies ;  in  other  words,  the  foes ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  adversaries;  or,  to  make  myself  clear, 
the  antagonists;  in  short,  the  opponents,  of  us  all,  of  the 
patriots,  the  Creoles,  the  natives ;  in  a  word,  of  the  natural 
born  sons  of  the  soil. 

"You  are  a  perverse  generation,  an  obstinate  race,  a 
stubborn  breed,  a  pig-headed  tribe. 

"You  must  follow  your  natural  tendencies,  your  innate 
bent,  against  all  reason,  sense  and  sapience. 

* '  There  has  been  no  end  to  your  plots,  to  your  intrigues, 
your  machinations,  your  cabals,  your  designs,  your  con 
spiracies. 

"You  have  been  warned,  admonished,  cautioned,  exhort 
ed,  reprehended,  chidden,  rebuked,  reprimanded,  castigated 
and  lectured. 

"Our  Supreme  Perpetual  Dictator,  in  the  days  when  he 
•was  first  Consul,  condescended  to  expostulate  with  you 


AMNESTY  613 

upon  your  conduct  and  to  read  you  a  lesson  as  to  your  fu 
ture  behaviour. 

1  'During  his  first  dictatorship,  knowing  that  he  could 
not,  at  sight  of  you,  restrain  his  righteous  indignation,  he 
mercifully  commissioned  me  to  remonstrate  with  you  upon 
the  renewal  of  your  hideous  practices. 

"The  Carai  is  long-suffering,  kind-hearted,  and  merciful. 
He  renews  through  me  the  warning,  the  giving  of  which, 
even  once,  was  an  undeserved  indulgence. 

'  *  He  bids  me  say  that  he  is  perfectly  well  aware  of  your 
plans,  designs,  schemes,  intentions,  purposes,  and  projects; 
that  he  sneers  at  the  futility  of  your  self-deception,  at  your 
stupid  delusion  that  you  were  undetected. 

"He  makes  this  plain  by  the  message  to  you  that  he 
is  well  aware  that  only  one  Spaniard  in  Asuncion  has 
kept  aloof  from  your  latest  and  most  dangerous  con 
spiracy.  ' ' 

Here  Don  Gumesindo  paused  and  scanned  the  faces  of 
his  victims.  But  no  difference  in  their  expression  led  him 
to  conjecture  which  was  the  one  to  whom  El  Supremo  had 
referred,  since  Don  Vicente's  face  showed  quite  as  much 
anxiety  as  those  of  his  comrades. 

Taking  a  long  draught  of  mate,  a  big  pinch  of  snuff,  and 
more  than  one  puff  at  a  fresh  cigar,  Estagarribia  recom 
menced  : 

"He  bids  me  announce  to  you  and  through  you  to  the 
clergy  of  Paraguay,  even  including  the  priors  and  the  Bish 
op;  to  such  misguided  natives  as  you  have  seduced  into 
joining  your  nefarious  league ;  that  if  ever  he  learns  of  any 
one  of  you  so  much  as  hinting  at  a  plot,  or  suggesting  a 
conspiracy,  let  alone  planning  an  insurrection,  you  shall 
not  escape,  not  a  man  of  you.  You  shall  be  rooted  out  from 
the  soil  of  Paraguay,  extirpated,  abolished,  annihilated, 
eradicated  from  the  land. 

"At  the  very  least,  you  shall  be  confined  in  the  public 
prison  or  banished;  more  likely  cast  into  dungeons,  most 
likely  shot  without  mercy.  This  is  no  empty  threat,  no 
vain  menace,  but  a  mere  forest atement  of  what  will  occur. 

"Your  fate  is  in  your  own  hands.  El  Supremo  does  not 
expect  you  to  become  loyal  citizens  of  our  glorious  republic, 
or  helpful  members  of  our  prosperous  commonwealth.  He 
is  willing  that  you  should  continue  sullen  and  malevolent 


614  EL   SUPREMO 

as  long  as  you  keep  silent;  that  you  should  exploit  the  needs 
of  us  Creoles  and  grow  richer  upon  our  necessities  as  long 
as  you  do  not  too  unconscionably  abuse  the  privileges  ac 
corded  you. 

' '  But  this  is  the  last  warning.  Move  an  eyelash  or  a  lip 
towards  any  conspiracy,  and  you  vanish  into  durance  or 
perish  utterly  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"  Meantime,  our  gracious  Dictator  proclaims  through  me 
complete,  irreversible,  absolute  forgiveness,  which  you  do 
not  deserve,  for  all  your  past  offences  of  thought,  word  and 
deed.  He  promulgates  now  and  forever,  for  all  of  you,  for 
all  crimes  of  the  past,  plenary  amnesty." 

He  blinked,  waved  a  fat  hand  in  dismissal  and  reached 
out  for  his  mate  cup. 

As  the  released  Spaniards,  mopping  their  brows,  trudged 
exhaustedly  homewards,  Don  Arturo  Balaguer  spoke  under 
his  breath  to  Don  Gil  Romero: 

"I  wonder  what  would  happen  to  old  Estagarribia  if 
His  Omnipotence  ever  heard  that  the  sergeant  called  him 
'Carai'  when  he  ordered  us  to  line  up  before  him." 

"Gumesindo  would  probably  be  shot  as  a  potential 
traitor,"  Don  Gil  sneered. 

(2) 

Desiderio  Mayorga,  since  he  had  been  born  in  Buenos 
Aires,  had  had  to  accompany  his  father  to  the  Plaza.  Car- 
melo  and  Rafael,  as  natives  of  Paraguay,  were  outside  the 
scope  of  the  proclamation  and  free  to  do  as  they  pleased. 
Carmelo  had  remained  at  home  to  soothe  his  mother,  aunts 
and  sisters.  Hawthorne  had  joined  him,  as  a  trusted  friend 
and  almost  a  member  of  the  family.  His  known  influence 
with  the  Dictator  was  a  comfort  to  the  women.  Especially 
to  poor  Angelica,  two  days  a  bride  and  equally  in  terror 
for  her  father  and  husband. 

Rafael,  however,  had  gone  out  and  had  remained  away. 
He  was  still  absent  when  his  father  and  eldest  brother  re 
turned.  In  fact,  he  did  not  return  until  after  the  general 
rejoicings  had  quieted,  the  two  had  rested  and  refreshed 
themselves  and  the  family  were  about  to  sit  down  to 
dinner. 

The  sight  of  his  face  threw  everybody  into  a  state  of 
renewed  panic. 


AMNESTY  615 

"What  is  wrong  now?"  Don  Vicente  asked  sharply. 
"What  fresh  horror  threatens  us?" 

"As  to  that,  sir,  I  cannot  say,"  Rafael  replied;  "but  it 
is  certain  that  Don  Porfirio  was  arrested  at  dawn  and  con 
fined  in  the  general  cell  of  the  infantry  barrack." 

"Is  he  there  now?"  his  father  queried. 

"No,  sir,"  was  the  answer.  "I  just  now  saw  him  with 
another  prisoner,  whom  I  could  not  recognise  at  such  a 
distance,  taken  on  board  Don  Mauricio's  brig  which  was 
about  to  sail  for  Buenos  Aires." 

"Was?"  Don  Vicente  put  in  questioningly. 

"The  moment  the  soldiers'  boat  rowed  away,"  Rafael 
explained,  "she  weighed  anchor  and  set  sail." 

"Well,"  said  his  father,  "poor  Porfirio  is  banished, 
that  is  clear.  But  I  see  no  reason  in  this  for  your 
alarm." 

' '  That  is  not  all, ' '  Rafael  continued.  ' '  Don  Rogelio  Ga- 
marra  was  also  arrested,  and  he  was  butchered  early  in 
the  day  along  with  two  other  prisoners  taken  out  of  the 
dungeons.  I  could  not  find  any  one  who  claimed  to  have 
any  guess  who  they  were.  The  firing  squad  missed  all 
three  of  them  and  bayoneted  them  to  death." 

"Jesu  Maria!"  cried  Angelica. 

But  Don  Vicente  remained  calm. 

1  *  Have  you  heard  of  any  more  arrests  ? "  he  enquired. 

* '  There  certainly  was  one  more  arrest, ' '  Rafael  answered, 
"but  I  could  not  learn  who  had  been  arrested.  He  is  con 
fined  in  the  general  cell  of  the  cavalry  barrack. ' ' 

"At  least,"  Mayorga  said,  "he  has  not  been  shot,  who 
ever  he  is.  Let  us  accept  the  good  gifts  of  Heaven  and  eat 
our  dinner  like  thankful  Christians.  After  the  siesta  hour 
we  can  enquire  further." 

(3) 

Not  long  after  the  siesta  hour,  Francia  was  announced 
at  Casa  Velarde.  Ventura  welcomed  him  with  some  sur 
prise,  and  asked: 

'  *  Have  you  already  returned  from  the  barracks  ? ' ' 

"No,"  he  replied.  "I  am  just  setting  out  for  them  and 
stopped  in  for  a  moment  on  my  way." 

"Why?"  she  queried. 


616  EL   SUPREMO 

"To  give  you  an  order  for  a  prisoner's  release  from  the 
cavalry  barrack,"  he  answered. 

' 'An  order  of  release!"  she  exclaimed.  ''I  have  not 
asked  for  any.  For  whom  is  it?" 

1 '  You  will  find  that  out  when  you  read  it, ' '  the  Dictator 
smiled,  holding  it  out  to  her,  folded.  ' '  You  have  not  asked 
for  it,  but  I  knew  that  you  would  ask  for  it  as  soon  as  you 
heard  of  the  arrest.  I  knew  I  could  not  refuse  you  and 
must  yield  to  your  request,  so  I  wrote  and  brought  it  be 
fore  it  was  asked  for,  to  save  both  of  us  time  and  trouble 
and  the  prisoner  a  night  in  the  general  cell  of  the  cavalry 
barrack. ' ' 

"If  you  are  so  considerate  of  him,"  Ventura  smiled  in 
return,  ''why  arrest  him  at  all?" 

"It  was  entirely  impossible  to  ignore  his  offences,"  Fran- 
cia  replied.  "If  such  activities  are  condoned,  Paraguay 
would  soon  cease  to  have  a  government  and  I  to  be  a  Dic 
tator." 

Ventura  opened  the  order  and  paled. 

"Tio  Lupercio!"  she  cried.  "Arrested?  He  went  out 
as  usual  this  morning,  and  it  is  not  extraordinary  for  him 
to  dine  with  friends  without  sending  word  home.  We 
never  thought " 

She  broke  off,  twisting  the  order  and  staring  at  it. 

Then  she  asked : 

I 1  What  am  I  to  do  with  him  when  I  have  him  free  ? ' ' 
"Set  him  on  a  good  horse,"  Francia  said,  "and  tell  him 

to  make  his  best  speed  for  Atira.  Tell  him  that  he  is  safe 
for  life,  however  long  he  lives,  while  he  keeps  north  of  the 
Rio  Salado,  Lake  Ipacaray,  and  Arroyo  Pirayu.  Tell  him 
if  he  ever  ventures  south  of  that  line  I'll  have  him  shot. 
And  remember  to  tell  him  that  in  that  case  even  your  in 
tercession  would  avail  him  nothing.  This  indulgence  is 
more  than  he  deserves." 

I 1 1  shall  not  forget, ' '  Ventura  replied. 

She  regarded  the  Dictator  steadily,  and  asked : 

f  l  What  was  his  offence  ? ' ' 

"Too  much  intimacy,"  Francia  replied,  "with  Porfirio 
Somellera  and  Rogelio  Gamarra." 

"I  can  give  you  my  word  for  him,"  she  said,  "that  he 
will  associate  with  neither  any  longer." 

"I  am  sure  he  will  not,  without  your  word  or  his,"  quoth 


AMNESTY  617 

Francia  grimly.    "Somellera  is  leagues  down  the  river  by 
now  on  a  brig  bound  for  Buenos  Aires;  Gamarra  has  been 
executed  and  buried." 
"Oh!"  said  Ventura. 

(4) 

Naturally  Hawthorne  had  been  unable  to  sleep  a  wink 
during  the  siesta  hour,  and,  being  equally  sleepy  and  wake 
ful,  had  neither  appetite  nor  inclination  for  chess  or  con 
versation.  He  fairly  dragged  himself  to  the  Government 
House,  sick  at  heart,  weary  of  soul,  and  utterly  inert  IB 
mind  and  body. 

Francia  greeted  him  with  a  smile ;  not  a  sour  smile  nor 
a  grim  smile  nor  a  sly  smile,  nor  any  other  of  the  usual 
varieties  of  his  rare  smiles ;  this  was  a  smile  both  complete 
and  completely  genuine. 

"I'm  pleased  with  you!"  he  said,  "and  pleased  with  my* 
self.  It  is  always  agreeable  to  win  at  chess  or  at  any  larger 
game.  I've  been  betting  on  you  for  eleven  months  and 
three  days  and  I  find  I  am  a  winner.  I  'm  pleased  with  you 
for  turning  out  what  I  believed  you,  and  pleased  with  my 
self  for  reading  you  correctly  and  winning  my  wager. ' ' 

Hawthorne's  dazed  senses  did  not  grasp  the  meaning  of 
the  utterance,  hardly  heard  the  words,  and  clutched  at  the 
last. 

1 '  Your  wager  ? ' '  he  repeated,  perfunctorily.  ' '  What  did 
you  wager  ? ' ' 

"My  life,"  said  Francia  simply. 

"Your  life!"  cried  Hawthorne,  suddenly  enlightened. 
"You  mean " 

He  checked. 

' '  Oh, ' '  said  Francia,  "  I  've  bet  my  life  on  many  a  game 
these  many  years  and  always  won.  I  always  shall  win 
every  game  I  play  with  any  of  mankind,  few  or  many.  I  '11 
never  lose  except  at  the  game  we  all  of  us  lose  at,  the  game 
we  play  with  Father  Time.  I've  always  won  and  always 
enjoyed  the  zest  of  winning  and  even  more  the  zest  of 
risking,  and  most  of  all  the  zest  of  the  game  itself. 

' '  What  is  the  game  of  chess  to  the  game  of  life  ?  Num 
berless  though  they  may  be,  what  are  the  combinations  to 
be  got  out  of  thirty-two  pieces  of  six  different  powers,  on 


618  EL   SUPREMO 

sixty-four  squares,  compared  to  the  infinitely  more  numer 
ous  complex  combinations  of  the  great  game,  where  there 
is  no  limit  to  the  number  of  squares  or  pieces,  where  every 
piece  is  different  from  every  other,  for  what  two  human 
beings  are  alike,  where  the  rules  are  conditioned  only  by 
the  players'  faculties?" 

This  homily  gave  Hawthorne  an  opportunity  to  recover 
his  composure,  which  may  have  been  Francia  's  intention. 

"Come,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "both  of  us  are  not 
only  overstrung,  but  unstrung.  If  we  talk  along  this  line 
we'll  be  unable  to  swallow  a  mouthful  of  our  supper.  Let 
us  postpone  everything  relating  to  this  matter  until  we 
have  eaten." 

At  the  table  he  resumed: 

"I  fancy  you  have  no  more  hankering  for  food  than  I 
have.  We  need  a  stimulant.  It  is  many  a  year  since  I 
drank  French  liqueur  cognac  before  supper.  But  I  judge 
that  is  precisely  what  we  both  need." 

He  poured  two  carefully  calculated  allowances  and  said : 

"Drain  your  glass,  Don  Guillermo.  I  know  to  a  nicety 
how  much  is  good  for  us." 

He  raised  his  glass,  fixed  Hawthorne  with  his  keen  eyes 
and  added: 

"I  drink  to  a  man  too  magnanimous  to  abet  assassina 
tion." 

Hawthorne  gasped,  but  recovered  himself. 

"And  I,"  he  said,  "to  the  best  executive  Paraguay  ever 
had  or  ever  will  have. ' ' 

They  clicked  glasses. 

No  sooner  were  they  seated  at  table  than  Francia  deftly 
diverted  the  current  of  their  thoughts. 

"I  have  been  thinking,"  he  said,  "that  it  would  be  really 
labour  wasted  to  pave  the  haphazard,  irregular,  crooked 
streets  of  Asuncion.  It  seems  to  me  a  far  better  idea  to 
devise  a  coherent  and  regular  city-plan,  lay  off  new  streets, 
and  pave  them  when  cut  through." 

"How  would  you  go  about  it?"  Hawthorne  queried 
warily. 

"This  building  or  mass  of  buildings,''"  the  Dictator  ex 
pounded,  "faces  approximately  north-east.  So  does  the 
Cabildo,  though  their  facades  are  not  exactly  on  parallel 
lines.  The  Cathedral  faces  nearly  north-west,  and  its  long 


AMNESTY  619 

side  is  aligned  similarly  to  the  fagades  of  the  other  two. 
The  three  are  the  only  really  important  structures  in  the 
city.  Leaving  the  three  undisturbed,  a  series  of  straight 
streets,  approximately  parallel  to  the  river-bank,  could  be 
laid  off,  running  precisely  from  north-west  to  south-east 
with  a  convenient  uniform  interval  between  them.  Then 
others  at  right  angles  to  these  could  be  opened,  with  the 
same  uniform  interval.  This  would  result  in  a  regular 
city." 

"It  would,"  Hawthorne  snorted,  "but  at  the  cost  of  the 
destruction  of  the  existing  town.  Why,  not  one  building  in 
ten  would  suit  any  such  arbitrary  plan!  Nine-tenths  of 
the  houses  would  be  swept  away ;  all  the  convents  to  a  cer 
tainty,  and  all  the  churches." 

''Well,"  said  Francia,  in  his  most  argumentative  tone, 
"what  harm  in  that?  Don  Toribio's  house,  Don  Vicente's 
and  Gumesindo's  are  set  like  the  Cabildo.  Casal's  and  Ke- 
calde's  are  the  only  other  houses  worth  saving,  and  Don  An 
tonio  has  been  talking  of  building  a  new  house  for  a  long 
time.  The  Casal  house  is  a  spacious  ruin :  no  one  has  lived 
in  it  these  nineteen  years. 

"As  for  the  convents,  they  are  extensive,  but  merely  one- 
story  sheds  of  adobe  roofed  with  tiles.  Their  beams  could 
be  used  just  as  they  are.  Building  others  would  not  cost 
much.  And  I  am  not  so  sure  but  that  convents  are  a  detri' 
ment  anyhow. 

"As  for  the  small  houses,  they  are  mere  huts  and  could 
be  replaced  in  a  few  days. ' ' 

"But  the  trees!"  Hawthorne  objected.  "I  never  beheld 
finer  shade-trees  than  those  which  embower  Asuncion.  In 
laying  out  new  streets,  you  would  eradicate  practically  all 
the  trees." 

"Oh,"  said  Francia,  "it  would  be  easy  to  plant  accurate 
rows  of  selected  varieties,  and  in  this  climate  trees  grow  so 
rapidly  that  we  should  soon  have  imposing  avenues. ' ' 

"I  have  never  heard  of  a  town  which  ruined  its  trees 
2nd  afterwards  replaced  them,"  Hawthorne  challenged. 

"Nor  I,"  said  Francia  slyly,  "of  a  city  replanned  by  an 
absolute,  untrammelled  ruler,  as  I  now  am.  I  can  make 
sure  of  renewed  shade." 

"But  what  would  you  do  about  the  Riachuelo?"  Haw 
thorne  asked. 


620  EL   SUPREMO 

"Fill  it  in  and  grade  it  over,"  Francia  replied. 

"You'd  ruin  the  charm  of  Asuncion,"  Hawthorne  vig 
orously  maintained.  * '  Its  fascination  is  due  to  its  delight 
ful  irregularity.  You  would  sacrifice  that  for  a  dull  and 
wearisome  monotony." 

"What?"  cried  Francia.  "Do  you  prefer  a  fortuitous 
jumble  of  winding  lanes  to  an  ordered  plan  of  surveyed 
avenues  ? ' ' 

This  fired  all  Hawthorne's  love  for  Boston,  aversion  to 
Philadelphia  and  loathing  for  Cartagena,  Pamplona,  and 
Buenos  Aires.  He  launched  into  a  diatribe  on  the  folly 
of  the  gridiron  plan  for  cities  and  a  laudation  of  curved 
streets. 

Francia  regarded  him  with  genuine  amazement. 

"This  is  the  only  really  ill-judged  opinion  to  which  I 
have  ever  heard  you  give  voice,"  he  said.  "You  are  posi 
tively  acrimonious  on  the  subject.  Let  us  recur  to  what  we 
Were  speaking  of  before  supper.  You  seemed  startled. ' ' 

"Startled!"  Hawthorne  exclaimed.  "No  language  T 
know  has  any  word  to  describe  my  feelings.  You  said 
*  eleven  months  and  three  days.'  Do  you  mean " 

He  checked  again. 

"I  meant,"  said  the  Dictator  evenly,  "that  I  have  had 
accurate  reports  of  most  of  your  doings  and  sayings  since 
the  day  after  you  reached  Asuncion. ' ' 

Hawthorne  gaped. 

"Then  why  on  earth,"  he  exclaimed,  "did  you  not  have 
me  shot  at  once  at  the  beginning  ? ' ' 

"Because,"  Francia  rejoined,  taking  a  big  pinch  of  snuff, 
"I  was  playing  the  game,  a  game  worth  while,  worth  a 
million  chess-games. 

"All  I  heard  of  you,  from  the  first,  roused  my  interest 
and  staggered  my  credulity.  There  was  something  awe- 
inspiring  in  your  placid  and  evidently  sincere  assumption 
that  if  you  decided  to  overthrow  my  government  it  must 
fall.  There  was  something  very  taking  in  your  open-mind- 
edness.  You  had  not  assumed  that  I  was  a  tyrant,  though 
you  thought  it  probable.  You  had  not  assumed  that  a 
saving  leaven  of  sons  of  liberty  existed  in  Paraguay  fit  to 
form  a  genuine  republic,  though  you  hoped  as  much.  You 
had  not  assumed  the  truth  of  anything  you  had  heard,  you 
.came  to  investigate  and  perpend.  I  perceived  that  you 


AMNESTY  621 

were  really  open  to  conviction,  not  a  prejudiced  partisan, 
to  whom  all  my  doings  must  appear  fiendish  and  I  a  demon. 
I  judged  you  worth  convincing.  I  have  played  the  game  to 
let  you  convince  yourself  that  no  men  exist  in  Paraguay 
capable  of  creating  and  maintaining  a  veritable  republic, 
that  I  am  the  best  executive  for  my  country.  The  game 
was  often  terrifyingly  hazardous,  but  correspondingly  de 
lightful.  I  have  keenly  enjoyed  it.  I  keenly  enjoy  having 
won  it.  I  conceive  that  you  and  I  respect  each  other  and 
are  genuine  friends." 

Hawthorne  bowed. 

"From  you,  Sir,"  he  said,  "I  appreciate  the  honour  and 
the  compliment.  On  my  side,  I  can  affirm  that  we  are 
genuine  friends." 

"And  we're  getting  better  and  better  friends  all  along 
at  each  interview  ? ' '  Francia  queried. 

"Assuredly,"  Hawthorne  admitted. 

"Then  why  on  earth,  to  use  your  own  phrase,"  the  Dic 
tator  asked,  "did  you  hold  to  your  plans  in  opposition  to 
me  ?  Was  it  mere  cramp  of  the  determination,  so  to  speak ; 
was  it  mere  blindness  to  the  contemptible  character  of  your 
associates,  or  was  it  a  perception  of  some  defect  or  failing 
in  my  personality  which  I  myself  cannot  detect?  Speak 
out,  man !  Tell  me ;  I  want  to  know." 

Hawthorne  ruminated  while  his  host  lit  a  fresh  cigar. 

"I  think,"  he  said  slowly,  "it  was  a  mixture  of  all 
three." 

"Then,"  Francia  queried  keenly,  "what  are  my  chief 
defects  as  a  Dictator  ?  Speak  out.  I  tell  you  I  really  want 
to  hear." 

Hawthorne  pulled  a  wry  face  and  smiled  a  wry  smile. 

"I  thought,"  he  said,  "that  I  perceived  in  you  too  much 
for  your  own  and  the  country's  good  of  both  inconsistency 
and  caprice." 

Francia  pulled  a  wryer  face  than  Hawthorne  had 
shown. 

"I  admit  the  caprice,"  he  said;  "but  where  do  you  find 
inconsistency  ? ' ' 

Hawthorne  lit  a  fresh  cigar  and  puffed  at  it. 

"I  can  think  of  only  one  instance  at  the  moment,"  he 
said.  "It  seems  to  me  hardly  consistent  economy,  after 
invariably  counting  the  cartridges  before  executions,  to 


622  EL    SUPREMO 

waste  ammunition  in  a  general,  haphazard  fusillade  at 
stray  dogs. ' ' 

"I  can  meet  you  there/'  the  Dictator  asserted.  "A1 
prisoner  cannot  escape  and  is  motionless  on  the  banqutillo. 
Three  cartridges  are  quite  enough  to  finish  him.  But  dogs 
are  mobile,  and  it  may  take  a  dozen  cartridges  or  a  score 
to  kill  one  dog." 

"Why  waste  powder  on  vagabond  curs  at  all?"  Haw 
thorne  queried. 

' '  Ever  see  a  man  die  of  hydrophobia  ? ' '  Francia  retorted. 

"Never,"  Hawthorne  confessed. 

"I  have!"  spoke  Francia  shortly.  "Twice.  And  once 
I  have  seen  a  young  woman  die  that  worst  of  deaths.  I  am 
resolute,  as  far  as  my  power  goes,  that  here  in  Asuncion  no 
innocent  human  being  shall  suffer  hell 's  pains  before  death ; 
not  if  I  can  prevent  it.  I  am  short  of  powder,  but  I  am 
willing  even  to  lavish  it  on  the  extermination  of  stray  dogs. 
They  are  too  dangerous  to  unsuspecting  wayfarers. 

"You  may  convict  me  of  inconsistency,  but  not  on  that 
score.  I  am  a  careful  economist,  but  economy  of  human 
life  must  come  before  economy  of  powder.  I  am  economi 
cal  of  human  life  even  in  suppressing  conspiracies.  What 
do  you  think  of  me  now,  of  me,  that  bloody-minded  op 
pressor?  A  conspiracy  with  a  roster  including  every  old 
Spaniard  in  Paraguay  except  Vicente,  and  all  the  ex-gen 
erals  and  ex-colonels;  a  conspiracy  really  dangerous,  as 
long  as  you  guided  its  councils;  a  conspiracy  capable  of 
being  still  dangerous  without  you,  dissipated,  abolished, 
annihilated  at  the  cost  of  merely  one  man  relegated  to  his 
estates,  one  banished,  and  one  bayoneted.  That  beats  even 
Cicero 's  record  in  suppressing  the  Catilinarian  conspiracy : 
he  had  nine  men  put  to  death.  What  do  you  think  of  me 
in  comparison?" 

'  *  Three  men, ' '  Hawthorne  reflected.  ' '  I  heard  that  three 
were  shot  and  two  banished.  With  Don  Lupercio's  rele 
gation  to  Atira  that  makes  six." 

*  *  But  only  three  on  account  of  your  defunct  conspiracy, ' ' 
the  Dictator  explained.  "I  took  advantage  of  the  oppor 
tunity  to  rid  myself  of  Medardo.  As  Banfi  was  certain  to 
shun  Corrientes  and  Santa  Fe  and  make  no  landing  till  he 
reached  Buenos  Aires,  as  he  is  the  most  competent  river- 
captaia  to  avoid  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Artiguenosy 


AMNESTY  623 

«s  Somellera  was  capable  of  looking  out  for  his  own  secu 
rity,  Medardo,  with  them,  had  a  reasonable  chance  of  reach 
ing  Buenos  Aires  safely.  This  relieved  me  from  my  quan 
dary  ^in  respect  to  him,  for  I  had  been  in  the  crudest  posi 
tion  in  regard  to  him:  I  could  not  leave  at  liberty  a  man 
who  had  attempted  my  life,  could  not  be  sure  he  would  not 
escape  from  the  public  prison,  dreaded  that  he  might  die 
in  his  dungeon,  which  would  have  haunted  me  to  the  end 
of  my  days;  could  not  shoot,  as  he  deserved,  a  man  who 
had  been  my  saviour  in  former  years,  and  could  not  send 
him  down  the  river  to  probable  death  at  the  hands  of 
Eamirez  or  some  other  ruffian.  Medardo  was  a  heavy  care 
to  me.  Now,  thank  God,  he  is  off  my  mind." 

Hawthorne  stared. 

"That  accounts  for  the  two  banished/'  he  said,  "but 
what  of  the  three  shot?" 

"The  other  two,"  Francia  explained  crisply,  "were  the 
Chilabers." 

uThe  Chilabers!"  cried  Hawthorne. 

"Just  they,"  the  Dictator  answered.  "Those  idiots, 
those  asses,  re-entered  Paraguay ;  one  by  Paso  del  Bey,  the 
other  opposite  Candelaria.  Don  Joaquin's  patrols  nabbed 
them  both  and  sent  them  here  unobtrusively.  I  had  them, 
shot,  of  course." 

"Of  course!"  Hawthorne  agreed.  "What  a  pair  of  in 
credible  fools!" 

"Incredible,  indeed!"  said  Francia.  "Can  you  formu 
late  any  colourable  explanation  of  their  behaviour?" 

"None,"  said  Hawthorne.  "But  likewise  I  can  give  my 
self  no  explanation  of  why  only  Somellera  was  exiled  and 
only  Gamarra  shot.  And,  if  Gamarra  was  shot,  why  was 
Don  Lupercio  merely  confined  to  his  estates?  Was  it  be 
cause  he  is  Ventura 's  uncle  ? ' ' 

"Partly,"  Francia  confessed,  "but  only  partly.  Pro 
verbially,  the  Velardes  are  easily  fooled;  he  most  of  all. 
He  was  chosen  as  catspaw  and  spokesman  as  most  likely 
to  win  you  over.  He  was  far  from  suspecting  it  himself, 
but  he  wras  merely  Porfirio's  mouthpiece.  The  plot  was 
Somellera 's,  the  idea  of  using  you  wholly  his." 

Hawthorne  gaped  again. 

"Then,"  he  cried,  "why  was  not  he  shot?" 

"Because,"  Francia  explained  kindly,  like  a  nurse  with 


624  EL   SUPREMO 

a  fretful  child,  "he  has  or  had  some  sparks  of  decency  in 
his  composition.  Once,  years  ago,  Porfirio  had  a  chance  to 
put  me  out  of  the  way  finally;  was  tempted,  no  doubt  of 
that ;  but  resisted  and  refrained.  I  never  forget  such  treat 
ment. 

"As  for  Gamarra,  my  stomach  turns  over  to  think  of 
him.  He  was  my  chief  informer  and  tool.  Yet  he  not  only 
betrayed  you  and  the  rest  to  me,  but  sought  to  betray  me 
to  you  and  thought  himself  fooling  me  all  the  while.  With. 
Somellera  he  plotted  a  separate  and  distinct  cabal  in  your 
conspiracy  which  was  to  make  use  of  you  to  kill  me  and 
then  put  aside  the  plans  of  your  republic  and  establish 
Somellera  as  Dictator,  for  he  planned  to  get  rid  of  Gamarra 
when  he  had  used  him  long  enough." 

He  snorted. 

"Let  us  forget  all  this  and  have  some  chess, "  he  sug 
gested. 

"With  your  permission,"  Hawthorne  rejoined,  "one 
more  question." 

"A  hundred,  if  you  like,"  Francia  assented. 

"Why  does  Dr.  Bargas  go  scot-free?" 

"Jenofonte!"  the  Dictator  cried.  "The  pompous  zany! 
He  deserves  no  punishment  nor  even  a  thought.  But  were 
he  never  so  culpable,  I'd  let  him  alone.  If  I  interfered 
with  him  I'd  have  to  detect  one  or  ten  or  a  hundred  nests 
of  conspiracy;  while  he  sells  Mendoza  wine  they'll  all  plot 
at  his  warehouse.  I  am  better  off  as  things  are. ' ' 

In  the  study  he  rummaged  his  bufete  and  asked : 

"Are  you  good  at  repairing  small  mechanical  devices ?" 

"I  have  sometimes  succeeded,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"I  have  here,"  the  Dictator  explained,  "three  of  those 
little  French  gags  called  'des  poires  d'angoise.'  You  see, 
they  are  the  shape  of  a  pear  when  closed.  All  that  is  nec 
essary  to  gag  a  prisoner  effectively  is  to  pop  one  in  his 
mouth  and  press  the  spring,  like  that.  The  pear  opens,  and 
the  anguish,  they  tell  me,  is  very  acute  after  an  hour  or  so. 
But,  however  much  they  excruciate  the  victim,  they  cause 
no  injury.  He  is  gagged  effectively,  cannot  groan  even,  but 
is  in  no  danger  of  strangling.  Also,  his  external  appear 
ance  is  unaltered,  the  gag  inside  his  jaws  produces  no  bulge 
outside  nor  any  distortion  of  the  features.  So  they  are 
extremely  useful. 


COMPUNCTIONS  625 

* '  Two  are  in  good  order,  but  the  third  will  not  work. ' ' 

Hawthorne  examined  the  three  " pears  of  anguish"  and 
soon  discovered  a  broken  spring  in  the  defective  one. 

"I  can  do  nothing,"  he  said.  "It  would  take  almost  a 
watch-maker  to  forge  so  small  and  so  strong  a  spring." 

"Well,"  said  Francia,  "it  was  worth  while  asking  you. 
And  now  let  us  have  our  chess. ' ' 


CHAPTER   XLIV 

COMPUNCTIONS 
(1) 

AT  the  first  peep  of  day,  after  an  almost  wholly  sleepless 
night,  Hawthorne  had  Tolomeo  saddle  his  horse  with 
his  full  traveller's  recado.  But  when  Tolomeo  appeared 
with  his  cream-coloured  mule  also  saddled  for  a  journey 
Hawthorne  told  him  he  was  to  remain  and  keep  Hero  from 
following:  he  meant  to  travel  alone. 

He  felt  the  need  of  solitude,  of  loneliness.  His  being 
overflowed  with  the  disgust  that  filled  him  when  he  thought 
of  his  fellow-conspirators.  He  felt  the  same  crushing  de 
pression  as  he  reflected  upon  the  utter  futility  of  almost 
every  effort  he  had  put  forth  in  Paraguay.  Everything  he 
had  done  appeared  as  wasted  as  his  intervention  for  the 
worthless  Chilabers. 

He  rode  hard,  with  no  definite  objective  in  mind,  only  the 
vague  idea  of  avoiding  every  hamlet,  estancia  and  home 
stead  where  he  was  known.  In  this  he  succeeded,  and, 
when  night  overtook  him  somewhere  east  of  Paraguary,  not 
far  from  Mt.  Leon,  he  camped  near  a  spring  on  a  dryish 
hillside  in  a  grove  of  wild  orange  trees.  From  there  he 
pushed  on  eastward  at  the  first  dawn-light  and,  passing' 
Valenzuela,  succeeded  in  losing  himself  totally  long  before 
sunset.  He  had  eaten  the  last  of  the  provisions  which  Tol 
omeo  had  packed  in  his  wallet,  except  most  of  the  generous 
supply  of  charque.  Hawthorne  never  ate  jerked  beef  ex 
cept  as  a  last  resort,  and  was  disinclined  to  make  a  supper 
of  charque  and  nothing  else.  He  judged  he  would  be  un 
known  at  any  habitation  he  encountered,  as  he  was  quite 


626  EL   SUPREMO 

sure  the  country  was  entirely  novel  to  him.  His  longing  :".->r 
solitude  was  wearing  off,  and  he  felt  that  the  sight  of  a 
chacara  would  be  welcome. 

After  spending  two  days  in  shunning  human  beings  a^d 
steering  clear  of  farmsteads,  he  now  for  the  first  time  found 
himself,  apparently,  in  a  district  wholly  uninhabited.  He 
saw  nothing  but  waving  foliage,  grass,  or  reeds. 

Finally,  just  after  sunset,  almost  at  the  last  moment  be 
fore  the  rapid  fading  of  the  brief  twilight  would  have  left 
him  hopelessly  lost  for  the  night,  Hawthorne  did  descry 
the  thatched  roof  of  a  cottage. 

As  he  approached  he  saw  it  was  one  of  the  better  classr 
judging  by  the  orchards  and  gardens  about  it.  He  inferred 
from  the  windows,  all  shutterless,  screenless  and  gaping 
as  everywhere  in  that  countryside,  that  it  had  three  rooms. 
The  thatched  verandah-corridor  along  its  white-washed 
front  was  fairly  spacious:  the  sleeping  platform  near  it 
was  high,  ample,  and  solidly  built. 

Drawing  nearer,  he  was  saluted  and  surrounded  by  a 
formidable  pack  of  lean,  ferocious-looking  dogs,  yelping 
about  his  horse's  legs. 

At  the  sound  of  their  barking,  children,  many  children, 
swarmed  out  from  under  the  portico,  swarmed  in  again, 
swarmed  in  and  out.  Hawthorne  detected,  he  thought,  a 
something  more  than  surprise,  excitement  and  interest  in 
their  behaviour;  it  had  in  it  also  a  hint  of  consterna 
tion,  almost  of  alarm.  He  seemed  to  glimpse  an  adult 
face  at  one  of  the  windows,  but  of  that  he  could  not  be 
sure. 

Presently  a  woman  appeared  among  the  children  and  dis 
appeared  again.  When  she  returned  a  man  followed  herj 
and,  while  the  children  clustered  about  the  woman,  he  ad 
vanced,  hat  in  hand. 

Upon  his  coining  any  tinge  of  trepidation  vanished  from 
the  family's  demeanour  and  never  reappeared.  Haw 
thorne  imputed  the  transient  impression  of  it  he  had  had 
to  the  Arcadian  simplicity  of  these  isolated  but  urbane 
crofters. 

The  cottager  was  an  elderly  man,  his  dark  hair  and  long 
beard  streaked  with  grey.  Altogether  Spanish  he  was  in 
appearance  and  bearing,  and  also,  to  the  wanderer's  great 
relief,  in  speech,  though  with  some  effort. 


COMPUNCTIONS  627 

jlAfter  'the  first  brief  greetings,  always  formal  in  Para- 
g§ay  between  strangers,  even  the  lowliest,  Hawthorne 
asked  for  a  little  water.  The  master  of  the  house,  leaving 
mis  guest  standing  by  his  panting  horse,  himself  fetched 
Water  in  an  earthen  jug,  and  stood,  in  a  most  deferential 
attitude,  while  he  drank.  Hawthorne  urged  him  to  be  cov 
ered,  but  the  Creole  smiled  away  the  suggestion. 

Pouring  gravely  upon  the  ground  the  water  remaining 
in  the  jug  when  handed  back  to  him,  he  introduced  himself 
as  Leonardo  Vera  and  gracefully  acknowledged  Haw 
thorne's  self -introduction  by  saying,  in  rather  halting  and 
laboured  Spanish: 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,  it  is  late.  You  are  alone.  We 
are  about  to  sup.  Will  you  not  do  us  the  honour  to  enter 
my  poor  house  which  is  henceforth  yours,  to  share  our  meal 
and,  if  you  have  no  pressing  business,  to  remain  for  the 
night  with  us?" 

Upon  Hawthorne's  acceptance  he  bowed  again,  turned, 
and  called  in  Guarani,  telling  his  son  to  take  the  gentle 
man's  horse.  The  son,  a  personable  young  man  of  about 
twenty,  came  forward,  hat  in  hand,  with  as  much  grace 
and  politeness  as  his  father  had  exhibited. 

Before  the  verandah  Hawthorne  was  presented  to  the 
wife,  a  comely  matron,  younger  than  her  husband,  and  to 
eight  or  more  children;  the  eldest  a  tall  young  woman  of 
about  twenty-two,  almost  as  much  a  rub-ia  as  Dona  Encar- 
Bacion  Figueredo;  the  youngest  a  tough  little  Gaucho  of 
eight,  who  immediately,  and  apparently  unprompted, 
brought  a  basin  and  plenty  of  water  for  the  customary 
ablutions  of  a  weary  horseman.  The  boys  meantime  stood 
hat  in  hand,  the  mother  and  girls  with  arms  crossed  over 
their  bosoms,  in  a  pretty  attitude  of  deference. 

Not  from  any  intention  of  duplicity,  but  merely  because 
he  distrusted,  as  usual,  his  Guarani,  which  tongue  he  now 
understood  fairly  well  but  boggled  over  with  strangers, 
Hawthorne  confined  himself  to  bows,  nods  and  smiles, 
which  seemed  to  answer  every  purpose  with  these  gentle 
Arcadians.  Soon,  quite  as  if  he  had  been  in  North  America 
or  Europe,  he  was  seated  under  the  portico,  amusing  the 
children  by  displaying  his  watch,  an  undreamed-of  won 
der. 

While  the  light  was  still  sufficient  to  see  to  eat,  supper 


628  EL   SUPREMO 

was  announced :  a  spitted  lamb  roasted  whole,  chipd  bread, 
manioc,  a  superabundance  of  milk,  and  plenty  of  comb 
honey ;  of  course  with  unlimited  mate. 

Twelve  of  them  sat  down  to  table — Hawthorne,  his  hosts, 
seven  children  and  three  peon  labourers,  who  uttered 
not  one  syllable  during  the  meal,  comported  themselves 
with  notable  propriety,  and  ate  with  singular  dainti 
ness. 

During  the  supper  the  younger  children  assisted  the  one 
maid-servant  in  waiting  on  their  elders.  Hawthorne  no 
ticed  this,  judging  that  there  was  no  need  for  service,  as 
everything  provided  was  on  the  table.  Yet  they  flitted 
noiselessly  in  and  out,  carrying  away,  it  appeared  to  Haw 
thorne,  much  more  food  than  they  brought  in.  The  por 
tions  of  each  viand  which  they  took  out  seemed  very  gener 
ous  for  one  slender  girl. 

As  they  ate,  the  family  chattered  in  Guarani,  while  the 
host  conversed  sedulously  with  Hawthorne  in  his  halting 
Spanish.  Several  times  he  apologised  and  took  part  for  a 
moment  in  the  general  talk. 

During  one  of  these  brief  periods,  Hawthorne  heard  the 
youngest  daughter  break  in  with  an  exclamation : 

' '  I  forgot  to  take  him  any  honey ! ' ' 

To  which  her  mother  replied  curtly : 

1 '  Never  mind  now,  and  be  silent. ' ' 

Later  he  heard  the  wife  ask  the  nationality  of  thei* 
guest,  as  he  was  plainly  of  none  known  to  her.  The  hus^ 
band  tactfully  answered  that  he  was  not  sure,  but  conjec 
tured  that  he  was  a  countryman  of  the  invaders  who  had 
thrown  cannon-balls  into  Montevideo;  thus  dexterously 
conveying  that  he  thought  him  an  Englishman,  without  us 
ing  the  word  Ingles.  For  the  good  man  assumed,  of 
course,  that  Hawthorne  understood  no  Guarani  and  did  not 
suspect  that  they  were  speaking  of  him;  whereas  since 
Guarani  possessed  no  native  term  for  "Englishman,"  but 
used  the  Spanish  synonym,  the  word  Ingles  would  have 
betrayed  the  subject  of  their  talk. 

Hawthorne  was  much  struck  by  such  innate  courtesy 
and  the  instinctive  subtlety  amid  such  primitive  conditions 
of  diet,  clothing,  and  housing.  In  fact,  in  all  he  said  and 
in  his  manner  of  saying  it,  Leonardo  Vera  might  have  been 
a  grandee  instead  of  a  semi-peasant  yeoman. 


COMPUNCTIONS  629 

The  meal  ended  with  cigars,  every  human  being,  down  to 
the  eight-year-old,  lighting  and  puffing  one. 

As  the  cigars  burned  short,  the  host  remarked : 

"It  is  time  to  sleep,"  and  repeated  the  same  in  Spanish 
to  Hawthorne.  The  whole  family  trooped  out  of  the  house 
to  the  ladder  of  the  sleeping-platform. 

At  the  foot  of  the  ladder  the  father  stood  and  the  boys 
in  turn  approached  him  and,  pressing  their  hands  together, 
fingers  pointing  skyward  in  the  attitude  of  prayer,  each 
said: 

"Your  blessing,  my  father." 

Over  each  the  patriarchal  cottager  waved  his  right  hand 
to  describe  the  figure  of  a  cross,  repeating : 

* '  God  bless  you,  my  son. ' ' 

Following  the  boys,  the  girls  mounted  the  ladder,  each 
after  asking  her  father 's  blessing  in  a  similar  attitude  and 
waiting  for  him  to  say: 

"God  bless  you,  my  daughter,"  which  form  of  words 
lie  did  not  vary  for  the  maid-servant,  who  mounted  among 
them. 

Then  the  wife,  similarly  blessed,  went  up. 

Thereupon  Vera  motioned  Hawthorne  to  mount,  himself 
then  following.  The  three  peons  came  last,  pulling  up  the 
ladder  after  them. 

The  barefoot  women  and  girls  merely  removed  their  belts, 
loosened  the  necks  of  their  tupois,  and  lay  down.  Half  of 
them  were  already  asleep  when  Hawthorne  reached  the 
level  of  the  stage.  On  its  straw  mats  he  lay  down  among 
the  boys,  most  of  them  already  snoring. 

The  peons  lay  by  the  ladder. 

The  dogs  grouped  about  the  posts  of  the  platform  ut 
tered  not  a  bark,  not  a  growl ;  the  roosting  fowls  made  only 
an  occasional  squawking,  as  one  was  disturbed  in  its  sleep ; 
the  tethered  and  hobbled  saddle-horses  champed  with  little 
noise;  the  cattle  were  quiet  in  their  corral,  the  sheep  in 
their  fold.  In  the  all-embracing  stillness  Hawthorne  could 
hear  the  bats  twittering  above  him.  The  general  chorus  of 
tree-frogs  and  woodland  insects  soothed  him  to  sleep. 

But  he  was  kept  awake  and  later  awakened  again  and 
again  by  muffled  sounds,  seeming  to  come  from  the  cottage, 
as  of  a  human  being  fighting  mosquitoes,  tossing  and  turn 
ing  restlessly,  and  moaning  in  a  troubled,  intermittent 


630  EL   SUPREMO 

sleep.  He  could  not  make  out  whether  his  impression  was 
based  on  reality  or  was  a  delusion  of  a  half-dream  between 
sleeping  and  waking.  When  he  listened  intently  he  heard 
only  the  universal  night-noises,  as  he  drowsed  he  seemed 
to  hear  among  them  and  above  them  these  distressful  indi 
cations  of  a  suffering  fellow-creature. 

The  cock-crows  that  greeted  the  brightening  dawn  waked 
all  the  tenants  of  the  platform.  There  was  some  rubbing 
of  eyes  but  little  hesitation  about  getting  up.  The  ladder 
was  lowered;  the  peons,  servant,  family  and  guest  de 
scended.  No  morning  toilet  was  made  by  any  one  or  seemed 
thought  of.  The  girls  went  to  milk  the  cows,  the  boys  to 
saddle  the  horses,  the  peons  to  the  corral,  the  servant  to 
make  the  fire. 

Breakfast  was  merely  mate,  new  milk,  and  cigars.  The 
brief  meal  over,  Hawthorne  expressed  his  thanks,  knowing 
Paraguay  too  well  to  hint  at  payment,  bade  his  hosts  adieu, 
and  was  soon  in  the  saddle. 

Already  satiated  with  self-communion,  he  made  for 
Asuncion,  spent  the  night  at  Yaguaron  with  Don  Pedro 
Francia,  and  reined  up  at  Casa  Mayorga  late  in  the  after' 
noon  of  the  fourth  day. 

Hardly  had  Hero  barked  his  first  bark  when  Carmelo  was 
at  Hawthorne 's  stirrup. 

"You  are  wanted  at  the  Government  House/*  he  said. 
' '  We  have  had  almost  a  procession  of  messengers  enquiring 
for  you.  To-day  not  an  hour  has  passed  without  a  fresh 
arrival.  Each  has  repeated  the  message  that  you  are  to 
report  at  the  Palacio  as  promptly  as  you  can  without  in 
conveniencing  yourself. ' ' 

"I  shall  not  inconvenience  myself,"  Hawthorne  replied, 
repressing  Hero 's  leaps  of  ecstasy.  "  1 11  bathe  and  change 
into  fresh  clothes  before  I  start." 

(2) 

Francia 's  greeting  was  oddly  compounded  of  vexation 
and  relief. 

' '  Where  on  earth  have  you  been  ? "  he  queried. 
Hawthorne  toid. 

"Why""  came  the  second  question. 
Hawthorne  tried  to  tell. 


COMPUNCTIONS  631 

"I'll  never  fathom  the  New  England  temperament,"  the 
Dictator  mourned.  "Why  disappear  without  a  hint  or 
inkling  to  me  ?  Why  unnerve  me  with  solicitude  ? ' ' 

Hawthorne  looked  his  amazement. 

"Have  sense!"  Francia  admonished  him.  "Of  course  I 
was  anxious.  Do  you  suppose  I  gave  you  that  poniard  for 
the  Carbonels  only?  Not  I,  nor  did  you  ask  for  it  for  the 
Carbonels  only.  You  need  it  for  every  one  of  your  late 
associates  except  Bernardo  and  Gregorio  and  the  handful 
who  stood  by  you  at  the  crisis. 

' '  Irrespective  of  consideration  for  you  I  should  have  had 
Gamarra  executed  anyhow,  but  remember  if  he  were  alive 
now  you  would  be  a  dead  man,  for  if  he  had  not  been  exe 
cuted  you  could  have  survived  only  by  killing  him.  The 
rest  are  only  a  shade  less  envenomed  than  he  was;  espe 
cially  Valeriano  and  Segundo.  You  need  to  be  on  the 
watch  day  and  night. 

' '  Under  such  circumstances  why  turn  me  grey  before  my 
time  with  alarm?  I  haven't  enjoyed  a  meal  since  I  saw 
you  last,  which  reminds  me  I  can  hurry  supper  and  we'll 
both  be  surprised  how  much  we  relish  it.  Where  did  you 
sup  last  night?  With  Pedro?  You  should  have  supped 
better  than  I;  that  bullock  always  has  his  manger  stuffed." 

Over  the  supper  Francia  gradually  extracted  from  Haw 
thorne  a  fully  detailed  narrative  of  his  ramble.  He  ap 
peared  much  interested  in  his  account  of  Vera's  cottage 
and  of  how  it  impressed  him. 

"This  is  very  striking,"  he  said.  "You  tell  it  as  if  it 
were  the  first  Paraguayan  cottage  you  had  seen.  It  is  as 
fresh  as  a  painting.  I  am  seeing  a  Paraguayan  farmstead 
through  foreign  eyes." 

And  he  asked  many  questions,  particularly  of  Haw 
thorne  's  recollections  of  the  children  waiting  on  the  supper 
table,  and  of  his  drowsy  sensations  before  he  fell  asleep  on 
the  platform. 

Over  the  chess-board  he  said : 

"This  will  be  our  last  evening  together  for  some  time. 
I  must  devote  myself  to  Beltran.  The  poor  lad  is  brooding 
over  his  loss  of  Angelica,  and  is  pitiably  dispirited.  You 
and  I  are  the  only  human  beings  in  Asuncion  capable  of 
cheering  him  up.  As  we  three,  for  some  reason  which  I 
could  not  have  foreseen  and  cannot  analyse,  do  not  get  on 


632  EL    SUPREMO 

well  together  I  cannot  have  you  both  as  guests  at  once. 
And  I  must  have  him  with  me  nearly  every  evening.  I  am 
uneasy  because  he  is  left  to  his  lonely  regrets  to-night.  I 
could  not  love  that  boy  more  if  he  were  my  son.  Suffering 
to  him  makes  me  suffer  more  than  he  himself.  I  would  do 
anything  to  make  him  happy.  At  least,  I  must  do  all  I 
can  to  diminish  his  unhappiness.  I  would  even  give  him 
leave,  though  he  is  the  life  of  every  regiment  I  have,  if  I 
thought  leave  would  really  benefit  him.  If  he  had  leave, 
you  could  go  out  to  Itapua  and  play  chess  with  him.  You 
can't  play  chess  with  him  in  town,  for  of  course  I  couldn't 
allow  even  you  inside  a  barrack  after  dark  and  you  are 
domiciled  in  the  same  house  with  Angelica  and  her  bride 
groom.  So  the  best  I  can  do  is  to  play  chess  with  him  my 
self.  That  seems  to  give  him  a  respite  from  brooding.  But 
that  cuts  me  off  from  you. 

"Meanwhile,  promise  me  you  won't  vanish  again.  No,  I 
do  not  want  to  put  you  under  practical  arrest,  or  confine 
you  tc  the  city.  Ride  all  you  please  provided  your  dog 
runs  by  your  horse  and  you  sleep  at  Casa  Mayorga.  But 
be  sure  your  belt  pistols  and  your  holster-pistols  are  clean, 
properly  loaded,  and  ready  primed.  Don't  go  afoot  any 
where  outside  the  city ;  that  will  be  quite  sufficient.  Other 
wise  I  lay  no  injunctions  upon  you;  suit  yourself  and  do 
as  you  like." 

Hawthorne  won  the  first  game,  and  the  Dictator  ex 
claimed  : 

'  *  What  marvellous  luck  you  have ! ' ' 

He  himself  won  the  second,  and  similarly  exclaimed: 

1 *  What  miraculous  luck  for  me ! " 

"You  perplex  me,"  Hawthorne  rejoined.  "I  cannot  see 
that  luck  was  a  factor  in  either  game,  for  either  of  us. 
They  seemed  normal  routine  games  without  a  serious  mis 
take  or  brilliant  coup  on  either  side." 

"I  was  not  speaking  of  the  chess-board  at  all,"  Francia 
explained.  "I  was  thinking  of  that  poniard  clattering  on 
the  window-sill  and  the  foiled  assassin  fleeing  in  the  moon 
light,  of  your  fist  thudding  upon  Agustin  Lopez's  jaw,  of 
Don  Jose's  face  when  he  saw  your  horse  dead  in  the  pit 
and  me  safe,  of  your  peppering  Abend  ano's  calves,  of  your 
encounter  under  the  verandah  at  Ibirai,  and  of  one  more 
instance  of  the  same  sort." 


COMPUNCTIONS  633 

"What  one  more?"  Hawthorne  queried.  "You  puzzle 
me." 

"Evidently;  and  I  knew  I  should,"  the  Dictator  chuck 
led.  "But  when  you  learn  what  I  am  talking  about  you 
will  agree  with  me  that  your  luck  is  amazing,  and  mine 
(through  you  always  and  more  and  more  each  time)  alto 
gether  unbelievable." 

(3) 

The  sudden  abolition  of  the  sustaining  purposes  of  his 
life  made  the  days  ensuing  extremely  unpleasant  for  Haw 
thorne. 

His  morning  ride,  with  or  without  Carmelo,  was  always 
at  least  partly  a  pleasure,  but  never  completely.  Riding 
with  no  definite  object  irked  Hawthorne.  When  he  first 
came  to  Asuncion  he  wished  to  familiarise  himself  with  the 
suburbs  and  neighbourhood.  Each  ride  had  had  a  specific 
purpose.  But  once  he  was  acquainted  with  the  face  of 
the  country,  the  estates,  the  roads,  the  houses,  repeating  an 
excursion  for  the  mere  sake  of  the  fresh  air  and  of  the 
exhilaration  of  a  brisk  gallop  did  not  entirely  please 
him. 

After  his  ride  came  his  visit  to  the  prison.  In  this  again 
was  a  mixture  of  pleasure  and  irritation.  Every  minute 
he  spent  in  Cecilia 's  company  was  precious  to  him ;  he  was, 
if  possible,  more  in  love  than  when  he  first  saw  her.  But, 
while  she  was  always  courteous  and  usually  friendly,  his 
baffled  sense  of  never  getting  any  better  acquainted  with 
her  depressed  his  already  low  spirits  and  added  to  the  de 
spondency  he  felt  at  his  inability  to  secure  her  freedom. 

The  Mayorga  family  he  found  always  delightful  and 
never  boring.  But  he  fretted  at  being  reduced  to  their 
society  only.  To  be  sure,  Dr.  Bargas  had  called  and  had 
urged  him  to  continue  to  frequent  his  wine-shop,  declaring 
that  most  of  his  former  cronies  bore  him  no  ill-will  and  in 
deed  regarded  him  as  entirely  free  from  blame  in  regard 
to  the  dissolution  of  the  conspiracy.  But  Hawthorne  could 
not  overcome  his  repugnance  to  the  memories  the  wine-shop 
was  certain  to  evoke  and  to  the  men  he  was  likely  to  meet 
there. 

His  afternoons  hung  deadly  heavy  on  his  hands. 


634  EL    SUPREMO 

At  first  he  tried  to  take  up  time  by  going  to  bed  early, 
rising  late,  and  similarly  increasing  the  time  he  took  for 
his  daytime  siesta.  But  after  a  few  days  he  seemed  to 
have  had  enough  sleep  and  indeed  could  not  stay  asleep  as 
much  of  the  twenty-four  hours  as  he  had  been  used  to. 

The  evening  tertulias  he  found  no  longer  spontaneously 
gay.  The  shadow  of  the  dissolved  conspiracy  hung  over 
all  who  came,  the  evenings  were  dull  and  bored  him.  He 
longed  for  a  chess-game  with  Francia. 

His  escape  from  this  tedium  came,  oddly  enough,  through 
a  second  encounter  with  the  Carbonels. 

He  had  met  Pablo,  more  than  half  drunk.  Pablo  had 
recognised  him,  that  was  plain,  but  without  any  show  of 
hostility  or  of  resentment.  Quite  the  reverse,  he  had  apol 
ogised  for  Pedro's  "rudeness,"  as  he  called  it,  altogether 
as  if  he  had  had  no  part  in  it,  had  urbanely,  if  drunkenly, 
disclaimed  any  belief  that  Hawthorne  had  brought  their 
expedition  bad  luck  or  that  any  reward  had  ever  been  paid, 
or  promised  to  any  one  for  the  capture  of  Felicien  Aben- 
dano.  He  had  ingeniously  led  up  to  the  suggestion  that  he 
would  be  obliged  for  a  small  loan. 

Hawthorne  had  just  given  him  two  silver  pesos  when 
Pedro  came  round  the  corner,  like  a  charging  bull,  bel 
lowed  at  Pablo,  gesticulated,  cursed,  accused  him  of  be 
traying  his  brother  to  a  foreigner,  of  taking  bribes  to  ruin 
him,  of  swearing  away  their  chance  to  collect  from  Haw 
thorne  an  indemnity  for  the  bad  luck  he  had  brought  them 
and  their  share  of  the  reward  paid  for  Felicien  Abendano ; 
and,  when  Pablo  acknowledged  the  accusation  and  maud- 
linly  displayed  the  two  piastres,  fell  upon  him  with  blows 
and  vows  to  kill  him. 

Hawthorne  again  left  them,  knives  in  hand,  roll 
ing  on  the  ground  clinched  in  what  seemed  a  death, 
struggle. 

The  next  day  he  again  encountered  Pablo,  less  intoxi 
cated,  and  he  explained  that  Pedro  was  violent  but  harm 
less,  all  bark  and  no  bite.  His  rambling  discourse  about 
idling  on  the  river-front  or  on  a  wharf  or  pier  and  his  tales 
of  long  talks  between  waifs  like  himself  gave  Hawthorne  a 
hint  at  which  his  imagination  set  to  work. 

He  took  only  Carmelo  into  his  confidence.  Carmelo  was 
#t  first  shocked  at  the  bravado  of  the  idea,  then  he  agreed 


COMPUNCTIONS  635 

that  the  mere  effrontery  of  so  hazardous  a  prank  made  it 
almost  safe. 

He  procured  Hawthorne  a  round  hat  of  the  Spanish  cut, 
a  poncho  and  a  coarse  pair  of  peon's  trousers.  Habited  in 
these,  Hawthorne  stole  out  after  dark  and  rambled  about 
the  city,  barefoot  and  tremulous. 

But  he  was  soon  reassured  and  before  long  quite  at  his 
ease.  No  one  halted  him,  the  peons  he  encountered  accept 
ed  him  for  one  of  themselves,  and,  when  he  passed  Parlettr 
almost  rubbing  shoulders  with  him,  he  was  not  recognised. 
The  streets  of  Asuncion  in  those  days  were  totally  innocent 
of  any  attempt  at  artificial  illumination.  The  few  persons 
abroad  after  dark  found  their  way  about  by  moonlight, 
starlight,  or  mere  groping.  Hawthorne  met  ex-Colonel 
Sinforiano  Guerreros  face  to  face  on  a  clear  night  and  was 
ignored.  All  this  gave  him  confidence. 

He  was  puzzled  at  the  peons  and  idlers  accepting  his 
Guarani  without  remark.  But  he  reflected  that  although 
the  traffic  up  and  down  the  river  was  trifling,  brigs  and 
other  vessels  from  Buenos  Aires  arrived  at  Asuncion  at  in 
tervals  and  left  there  all  sorts  of  waifs  and  strays  from 
various  ports  far  overseas.  Broken  Guarani  was  no  novelty 
among  the  idlers  in  the  Plaza. 

He  found  excitement  in  the  risk  and  entertainment  in 
some  trifling  occurrences.  He  repeated  the  venture  several 
nights  in  succession,  until  hanging  about  the  water-front 
became  quite  natural  to  him. 

On  the  fifth  night  Hawthorne  encountered  a  man,  like 
himself,  only  round  hat,  poncho  and  legs  to  any  one's 
vision.  Hawthorne 's  cigar  was  drawing  well  and  the  other 
civilly  if  somewhat  incoherently  asked  for  a  light. 

Risking  being  stabbed  for  the  sake  of  his  chancing  to 
have  a  purse,  and  every  muscle  ready,  Hawthorne  politely 
acceded.  The  face  brought  close  to  his  was  that  of  Luis 
Bazan.  The  moment  his  cigar  was  alight  he  began  pouring- 
out  an  account  of  his  grievances  against  the  world,  speaking^ 
as  if  to  an  old  acquaintance. 

Hawthorne  was  much  chagrined  at  being  recognised,  but, 
as  Luis  gabbled  on,  it  was  plain  that  he  had  not  recognised 
him,  and  evidently  had  no  suspicions  what  manner  of  man 
he  was. 

At  first  Hawthorne  was  pleased  at  this,  taking  it  as  an 


636  EL   SUPREMO 

evidence  of  the  adequacy  of  his  disguise.  But  the  torren 
tial  garrulity  of  Luis  quickly  advised  him  that  he  was  too 
nearly  drunk  to  notice  any  small  variations  of  manner  or 
garb;  so  near  drunk  that  he  ignored  any  deficiencies  of 
Hawthorne's  Guarani,  did  not  wait  for  answers  to  his 
questions,  and  required  no  encouragement  to  continue  his 
loquacity. 

Thus  proceeding,  Hawthorne  a  mere  listener,  they 
reached  Don  Meliton  Isasi  's  wharf  with  its  usual  gathering 
of  idlers.  Their  shapes  could  barely  be  discerned  in  the 
gloom,  for  the  night  was  starless,  overcast  and  dead  calm, 
most  unusual  weather  for  Asuncion.  Three  were  grouped 
half-way  out  the  pier,  and  these  they  passed  by.  At  the 
very  end  were  two  leaning  against  the  spiles  to  the  right, 
and  one  sitting  near  the  middle  of  the  pier-head  with  his 
feet  hanging  over.  Luis  plumped  himself  down  by  this 
burly  shape  and  the  growl  that  came  from  it  identified 
Pablo  Carbonel.  Hawthorne  sat  and  kicked  his  swinging 
feet  next  Luis. 

He  had  been  there  some  time  before  he  made  out  another 
human  figure  to  his  left,  wedged  in  among  the  spiles,  half 
sitting,  half  lying,  seemingly  a  spare  old  man.  He  uttered 
no  sound,  and  the  others  ignored  him  with  the  air  of  not 
only  being  used  to  his  presence  but  entirely  used  to  him. 

Luis  recommenced  his  grumbling  monologue : 

"First  time  I  went  to  the  yerbales  I  was  a  greeny,  of 
course.  I  couldn't  pick  over  two  hundred  pounds  of  yerba 
a  day  to  save  my  life.  All  the  old  yerbateros  jeered  at  me. 
I  worked  six  months  and  couldn't  do  over  two  hundred 
pounds  a  day.  That's  eight  arrobas.  Most  of  the  other 
peons  gathered  twelve  arrobas.  The  best  of  them  brought 
in  sixteen  arrobas.  My  mate  was  just  such  a  greeny  as  I, 
and  we  couldn  't  weigh  up  anything  worth  mentioning  over 
sixteen  arrobas  each  turn.  "We  were  always  teasing  each 
other  about  being  slow.  I  was  so  fretted  about  being  in 
the  slowest  pair  in  camp,  I  never  stopped  to  think  what  I 
was  earning.  When  we  were  paid  off  and  the  capataz  said 
I  owed  a  hundred  and  twenty  piastres  for  outfit  and  stores 
and  paid  me  twenty-four  piastres  in  silver,  I  thought  I  was 
the  richest  peon  in  Paraguay. 

"By  the  cross  of  Saint  Thomas,  it  was  all  gone  in  six 
weeks  and  I  dead  drunk  outside  a  pulperia.  And  when  I 


COMPUNCTIONS  637 

woke  I  had  not  a  maravedi,  nor  anything  in  the  world  but 
the  shirt  and  drawers  I  was  wearing.  So,  two  months  after 
pay-day,  I  was  back  again  in  a  yerbal  hard  at  work. 

' '  It 's  been  the  same  ever  since.  I  earn  twice  as  much  and 
keep  none.  I  was  paid  off  this  day  five  weeks.  I  am  as 
good  a  gatherer  now  as  any  in  Paraguay.  Juan  and  I 
weighed  in  thirty  to  thirty-four  arrobas  every  turn,  last 
spell.  I  was  in  debt  no  more  than  any  other  spell;  about 
a  hundred  and  twenty-five  piastres.  I  was  paid  a  hundred 
and  sixty-five  piastres  in  hard  silver.  I  spent  eight  pesos 
on  candles  to  burn  in  the  church  of  San  Bias,  for  a  vow. 
I  bought  sixty  pesos'  worth  of  silver  for  my  saddle  and 
bridle  and  about  twenty  pesos'  worth  of  clothes. 

"By  the  Cross  of  Saint  Thomas,  in  a  month  I  had  lost 
every  medio  I  possessed  at  cards. 

"I  sold  my  lovely  new  saddle  and  bridle. 

' '  The  cash  went  at  gaming  like  the  rest. 

{ '  I  sold  my  new  clothes. 

"I've  lost  my  last  maravedi. 

"To-morrow  off  again  for  the  yerbales. 

1  'Thus  it  goes. 

"They  say  Paraguay  is  now  a  republic  and  all  of  -as 
free  men.  It's  a  cheat,  a  fraud,  a  sham ;  we're  not  free,  we 
yerbateros.  I'm  not  free.  I'm  a  slave,  as  much  a  slave  as 
those  poor  blacks  El  Zapo  bellows  at  and  bangs  about.  I  'm 
a  slave.  All  we  yerbateros  are  slaves.  Slaves  of  the  habit- 
itados.  I  am  naked.  To-morrow  I  shall  be  hungry.  I 
must  have  food  and  clothes.  I  am  no  good  except  to  gather 
yerba,  I  go  to  an  habilitado,  to  Pablo  perhaps,  here  next 
me.  He  takes  me  to  Orrego  and  agrees  to  pay  for  my  food 
until  we  sail  for  up-river.  That  lands  me  in  debt  for  what 
I  eat.  I  am  naked.  I  must  have  an  outfit.  The  habilitado 
procures  me  what  I  need.  That  sinks  me  deeper  in  debt. 
At  the  yerbal  I  must  have  tobacco,  brandy,  sweetmeats 
perhaps,  what  not.  I  am  each  day  still  deeper  in  debt.  I 
am  a  slave,  a  slave  to  the  habilitado.  And  they  call  this  a 
free  republic ! ' ' 

"You  are  all  wrong,"  spoke  one  of  the  two  off  in  the 
darkness  to  the  right,  and  Hawthorne  recognised  the  voice 
of  Lazaro  Nunez.  "You  are  free  to  live.  You  have  been 
living.  You've  had  your  fun.  You  were  free  to  spend 
your  pesos  on  what  sort  of  fun  you  chose.  You  did  choose 


EL   SUPREMO 

the  fun  you  liked  best  and  spent  your  piastres  on  that. 
You  forget  the  fun  and  remember  the  work,  the  work  was 
what  you  had  to  do  to  be  free  to  have  your  fun.  I  work  as 
hard  as  you  and  have  no  more  fun.  But  I  look  at  life  the 
right  way.  I  remember  the  fun  and  forget  the  work.  You 
look  at  life  the  wrong  way." 

"He's  not  so  wrong,"  growled  Pablo  Carbonel.  "He's 
more  than  half  right.  We  may  be  free  for  our  fun,  but 
we  're  slaves  at  our  work.  The  peons  are  no  more  slaves  of 
us  habilitados  than  we  are  of  the  comerciantes.  We're  all 
slaves.  We  habilitados  are  slaves  of  the  comerciantes.  Luis 
ran  in  debt  a  hundred  piastres  or  so  and  cleared  two  hun 
dred  or  so  and  gambled  them.  I  ran  in  debt  five  thousand 
pesos  when  I  got  my  habilitacion,  my  grub-stake  from  Don 
Meliton.  I  paid  him  back  and  had  ten  thousand  clear  of 
my  own.  Instead  of  leaving  half  with  Padre  Loisaga  and 
grub-staking  myself  with  the  other  half,  I've  gambled  or 
spent  every  rial  to  the  last  medw.  To-morrow  I  must  go 
to  Don  Meliton  again,  and  begin  it  all  over  again.  We're 
all  slaves  together,  the  yerbateros  of  the  habilitados  and  the 
habilitados  of  the  comerciantes." 

1 '  You  're  all  slaves  of  your  own  follies  and  vices, ' '  came 
from  their  left. 

The  voice  struck  on  Hawthorne  *s  ears  as  familiar  and  un 
familiar.  It  had  in  it  the  world-wide  whine  of  the  profes 
sional  mendicant,  and  yet  had  also  a  sort  of  mumble  with 
it  as  if  the  speaker  had  pebbles  in  his  mouth. 

"Quit  preaching,  Don  Gaspar!"  came  from  Pablo  Car 
bonel,  with  more  than  even  his  usual  brutality.  "You  are 
an  old  fool;  you  are  the  most  completely  foolish  old  fool 
alive." 

No  answer  came  from  among  the  spiles.  Hawthorne 
stared  through  the  darkness,  eager  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
this  most  extraordinary  of  all  the  pordioseros  of  Asuncion. 
But  he  could  make  out  nothing  more  than  a  huddle  of  rags 
about  a  human  shape,  as  it  were  a  skeleton  muffled  in  wrap 
pings. 

As  he  was  peering  into  the  shadows,  he  heard,  stealthy- 
feet  behind  him,  heard  a  rush,  and,  before  he  could  put 
himself  in  a  posture  of  defence  or  more  than  barely  turn 
his  head,  saw  a  burly  figure  project  itself  at  Pablo  Carbonel 
and  heard  the  sickening  rend  of  steel  in  flesh. 


COMPUNCTIONS  639 

Pablo,  a  completely  limp  corpse,  sagged  over  the  wharf- 
edge  and  splashed  into  the  river. 

The  murderer,  barefoot  and  noiseless,  vanished  into  the 
darkness  out  of  which  he  had  come. 

The  two  Nunez  brothers  remarked  cheerfully : 
' '  That  was  Pedro.    He  said  he  would  kill  him. ' ' 
No  one  else  uttered  a  word,  no  one  moved. 
Luis  lit  a  cigarette. 

(4) 

Next  morning,  just  as  Hawthorne  finished  his  breakfast, 
an  urgent  messenger  from  the  Palacio  was  announced. 
Going  out,  he  found  Captain  Garmendia  himself,  on  horse 
back  and  with  one  trooper  attending  him. 

"You  are  wanted  at  once,  Senor  Don  Guillenno,"  he 
said.  "This  rascal  will  walk  back  to  the  barracks.  Pray 
take  his  horse." 

In  front  of  the  Government  House  they  went  past  the 
main  entrance,  and  Hawthorne,  through  a  side  gate  facing" 
the  landing-stairs,  where  he  had  never  before  entered,  was 
ushered  at  once  into  the  old  Jesuits'  garden  along  the 
Riachuelo.  There  he  found  Francia  pacing  up  and  down 
under  the  orange-trees. 

"Come,  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "I  need  your  confir 
mation  of  a  suspicion  I  entertain." 

He  led  the  way,  his  flowered  dressing-gown  flapping- 
oddly  about  his  sabre-sheath  and  white-silk  calves.  Under 
the  archway  of  the  narrow  passage  leading  from  the  gar 
den  to  the  forecourt,  he  paused  and  pointed,  stepping  back. 

Hawthorne  saw  Zorilla  beside  two  soldiers  holding  be 
tween  them  a  pinioned  prisoner.  He  recognised  the  height, 
the  figure,  the  nose,  the  scar.  It  was  indubitably  Don  Do 
mingo  Rodriguez.  Before  the  qualm  of  certainty  that 
surged  through  him  had  abated  he  heard  Francia 's  half 
whisper  in  his  ear: 

"Did  you  ever  see  that  man  before?"  He  spoke  in 
French. 

"I  have,"  he  answered  instantly,  also  in  French. 

"When  and  where?"  Francia  demanded,  adding:  "Re 
flect  before  you  reply." 

Hawthorne  stared  the  Dictator  full  in  the  eyes. 


640 


EL    SUPREMO 


' c  No  reflection  is  necessary, ' '  he  declared.  c '  I  have  never 
hinted  to  you  that  I  saw  him  at  all.  I  acknowledge  that  I 
saw  him,  since  the  confession  can  now  do  him  no  harm. 
But  I  decline  to  tell  you  when  or  where. ' ' 

' '  Hoity  toity ! ' '  Francia  exclaimed.  ' '  You  must  have  en 
countered  him  in  some  fashion  of  which  I  have  no  suspi 
cion.  I  shall  not  press  you  to  disclose  anything  whatever 
about  that.  What  I  want  is  to  confirm  a  very  definite  sus 
picion  I  already  had  before  I  sent  for  you. 

"Let  me  put  the  question  differently: 

"Is  there  anything  about  that  man  which  reminds  you 
of  moonlight,  a  barred  window,  a  wrist  wrenched  from 
your  clutch,  and  a  dagger  tinkling  on  -stone  ? ' ' 

"Pardieu!  c'est  lui!"  cried  Hawthorne  before  he  thought. 

"Yes,"  the  Dictator  said  solemnly,  in  Spanish.  "It  is 
indeed  the  nocturnal  assassin  from  whom  you  saved  me,  my 
cousin  the  rich  man  who  hates  me  because  I  thwarted  him 
in  an  unjust  suit  at  law.  I  caught  you  off  your  guard  for 
once,  Don  Guillermo.  You  have  confirmed  my  suspicions. 
If  you  protected  him  from  me  in  the  past,  that  proves  all 
the  more  cogently  your  sincerity. ' ' 

He  stalked  into  the  court,  Hawthorne  following.  Bel- 
tran  stood  up  from  the  smaller  chair  by  the  table  and  sa 
luted  formally,  adding  a  nod  to  Hawthorne,  who  took  the 
third  seat  at  a  gesture  from  Francia  as  the  Dictator  settled 
himself  in  his  curule  chair. 

"Bring  forward  the  prisoner!"  he  trumpeted. 

"Sefior  Don  Domingo/'  he  queried,  "where  were  you 
on  the  night  of  the  twenty-second  day  of  last  June  ? ' ' 

The  prisoner  locked  his  thin  lips,  his  face  mantled  in 
contemptuous  disdain. 

"You  dare  not  conf ess ?' '. cried  the  Dictator.  "Then 
hear  me  tell  you.  You  were  in  the  angle  of  this  Palacio 
under  my  mirador,  lurking  outside  rny  petitioners'  window. 
You  wore  a  woman 's  tupoi,  arid  held  a  dagger  in  your  hand. 
But  for  the  quickness  of  the  Senor  hero  at  my  left  you 
would  have  killed  me.  I  still  bear  the  scar  of  your  thrust." 

In  spite  of  himself,  Don  Domingo's  face  snowed  amaze 
ment  and  avowal. 

"Your  face  convicts  you,  Senor  Don  Domingo,"  Francia 
sneered. 

And  he  called: 


COMPUNCTIONS  641 

"Zorilla!" 

The  lieutenant  stepped  forward  some  paces. 

1 '  Take  him  out  at  once, ' '  the  Dictator  commanded.  ' '  Get 
him  a  priest,  but  waste  no  time  over  it.  Shoot  him  the  mo 
ment  the  priest  is  done  with  him. ' ' 

Each  leaving  the  other  to  hold  the  prisoner,  the  two 
soldiers  stepped  forward  and  Francia  counted  their  car 
tridges.  He  did  the  like  with  a  third  he  had  summoned. 

" Shoot  him  at  once,"  was  his  parting  order  to  Zorilla. 

As  the  five  disappeared,  he  said  to  Hawthorne : 

"I  am  unable  to  express  to  you  my  gratitude  for  your 
assistance  towards  apprehending  that  man." 

' '  My  assistance ! ' '  cried  Hawthorne.  ' '  I  never  gave  you 
an  approach  to  assistance." 

"Did  you  not?"  Francia  quizzed,  taking  huge  pinches 
of  snuff.  "You  do  not  yet  comprehend  your  part  in  all 
this,  I  see.  You  will  before  long,  Don  Guillermo." 

At  that  moment  Bopi  shambled  up  and  grunted  a  mes 
sage. 

"Who?"  Francia  queried.  "Oh,  yes.  Bring  him  in 
"before  the  other  one." 

A  lieutenant  and  four  soldiers  convoyed  Pedro  Carbonel. 
The  Dictator  regarded  him  without  any  sign  of  severity. 

"Don  Pedro,"  he  said,  in  his  courtliest  manner,  "you 
stabbed  your  brother  last  night." 

"I  did,  Senpr  Excelentisimo, "  Carbonel  acknowledged. 

*'That,"  said  Francia,  "was  worse  than  murder;  it  was 
fratricide." 

"Yes,  Excellency,"  was  Pedro's  reply. 

"'You  deserve  to  be  shot,"  the  Dictator  hissed. 

"Of  a  certitude,  Excellency,"  came  the  sobered  man's 
submissive  reply. 

Francia  beckoned  the  four  soldiers  in  turn,  counted  their 
cartridges,  and  gave  the  lieutenant  the  order. 

The  six  tramped  off. 

"Bring  in  the  other  man,"  Francia  ordered. 

In  came  Captain  Marcelino  Sanabria  superintending  four 
soldiers  surrounding  a  prisoner  who  walked  unbound,  with 
head  erect. 

With  a  horrible  qualm  Hawthorne  recognised  Leonardo 
Vera.  When  he  had  gazed  his  fill  and  turned  to  Francia, 
lie  found  the  Dictator  eyeing  him  satirically. 


642  EL    SUPREMO 

"Perhaps  you  now  realise,  Don  Guillermo, ' '  he  said, 
"how  I  came  upon  the  information  which  led  to  Don  Do 
mingo  's  arrest.  It  was  he  you  had  a  glimpse  of  at  the  cot 
tage  window,  it  was  he  who  went  without  his  portion  of 
honey  that  evening,  it  was  he  who  struggled  with  the  mos 
quitoes  while  you  slept  on  the  platform." 

Hawthorne  was  dumb. 

Francia  turned  to  the  standing  group. 

"Don  Marcelino,"  he  asked,  "why  is  not  this  prisoner 
tied  or  shackled?" 

' '  He  gave  his  word  to  come  with  us, ' '  Sanabria  replied. 

Francia  snorted. 

"You  have  some  sense,"  he  growled. 

Then  he  addressed  the  prisoner.  "Don  Leonardo,"  he 
said,  ' '  you  harboured  one  of  my  deadliest  enemies. ' ' 

1 '  Senor  Excelentisimo, ' '  spoke  the  yeoman,  * '  I  knew  not 
that  he  was  your  enemy;  I  knew  him  only  for  a  man  in 
distress,  a  fugitive. ' ' 

"If  a  fugitive,"  Francia  retorted,  "did  that  not  prove 
him  my  enemy?" 

' '  Of  that, ' '  replied  the  chacarero  firmly,  ' '  it  was  not  my 
place  to  think.  It  was  not  my  part  to  enquire  how  he  came 
to  be  a  fugitive  and  in  distress.  I  have  heard  many  ser 
mons  on  the  act  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  but  never  a  word 
hinting  that  he  should  have  investigated  how  the  man  fell 
among  thieves  before  he  succoured  him." 

"Would  you  succour  any  refugee?"  the  Dictator  que 
ried. 

"Excellency,"  the  prisoner  answered,  "if  you  yourself 
were  a  fugitive,  abased  and  hiding  from  your  enemies,  I 
should  give  you  food  and  shelter  without  question. ' ' 

"Senor  Don  Leonardo,"  the  Dictator  said,  "you  are  a 
good  man  and  a  good  citizen.  You  have  been  dragged  from 
your  family  and  your  farm.  The  state  owes  you  repara 
tion.  As  Dictator,  I  enjoin  upon  you  to  accept  what  is  due 
to  you. ' ' 

He  beckoned  Captain  Sanabria : 

"Don  Marcelino,"  he  said,  "dismiss  your  men.  Escort 
Don  Leonardo  to  the  cavalry  stables.  When  he  indicates 
which  horse  he  prefers  give  it  to  him.  Go  with  him  to  the 
market  and  when  he  chooses  a  recado  or  saddle,  as  he  pre 
fers,  have  it  girthed  upon  the  horse  he  has  chosen.  Then 


THE   PROFILE  643 

bid  him  farewell  upon  his  journey  homewards.  Give  the 
saddler  a  signed  paper  stating  the  cost  of  Don  Leonardo's 
equipment  and  send  him  here  to  be  paid. 

"Sefior  Don  Leonardo,"  he  added,  "here  is  a  trifling  sum 
with  which  to  purchase  food  for  your  journey  and  gifts  to 
please  your  wife  and  children." 

And  he  gave  him  ten  silver  dollars. 

The  crofter  bowed  gravely  and  thanked  him  in  a  neatly 
worded  compliment  in  Guarani. 


CHAPTER   XLV 

THE   PROFILE 
(1) 

NATURALLY,  Hawthorne,  on  leaving  the  Palacio, 
made  for  the  prison.  He  walked  slowly,  since,  al 
though  he  was  thinking  hard,  he  was  thinking  confusedly. 
His  dominant  thought  was  that  Cecilia  was  a  widow  and 
that  the  news  must  reach  her ;  it  should  be  broken  to  her  as 
gently  as  possible.  His  feeling  was  that  he  would  be  gen 
tler  with  her  than  any  one  else  in  Asuncion.  His  impulse 
was  to  tell  her.  But  the  consciousness  that  he  was  glad  to 
know  her  widowed  and  the  fact  that  he,  unwittingly,  had 
been  instrumental  in  her  husband's  death,  produced  a 
hopeless  confusion  in  his  thoughts.  The  contrast  between 
his  resistance  to  temptation  after  sighting  Don  Domingo 
at  El  Zapo's  cottage  and  his  blind  betrayal  of  him  after 
enjoying  Leonardo  Vera's  hospitality  appeared  a  grewsorne 
prank  of  malevolent  fate,  and  added  to  the  blur  over  his 
mental  processes.  He  groped  ineffectually  for  a  definite 
intention  and  a  plan  of  approach. 

He  arrived  at  none. 

At  the  prison  he  found  Cecilia  precisely  as  usual:  tall, 
apparently  in  perfect  health,  her  complexion  pink  and 
fresh,  her  hair  neat,  her  expression  serene.  Serenely  she 
continued  her  embroidery  after  Hawthorne  had  seated  him 
self  on  the  stool  by  the  door  of  the  hut  and  she  had  re 
seated  herself  on  her  cot. 

"Dona  Cecilia,"  Hawthorne  said,  "I  ask  your  par 
don." 


644  EL    SUPREMO 

' l  For  what,  Seiior  Don  Guillermo  ? ' '  Cecilia  queried. 

"For  what  I  am  about  to  tell  you,"  Hawthorne  ex 
plained. 

Cecilia  regarded  him  gravely. 

"Seiior  Don  Guillermo,"  she  said,  "I  don't  believe 
you  would  say  anything  to  me  which  I  ought  not  te 
hear." 

"Thank  you  for  your  trust  in  me,"  said  Hawthorne. 

"I  do  trust  you,  Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  she  said,  "and 
before  I  met  you  I  trusted  no  one  in  Paraguay ;  I  might  say 
no  one  on  earth.  Now  I  trust  Dona  Engracia  and  Doiia 
Pancha,  whom  I  met  through  you.  And  I  trust  you.  That 
makes  three.  I  am  rich  in  friends." 

i '  Then  you  will  not  be  vexed  with  me  if  I  am  the  bearer 
of  bad  news  ? ' '  Hawthorne  fumbled. 

Cecilia  gazed  at  him  attentively. 

"Seiior  Don  Guillermo,"  she  said,  "I  am  in  Paraguay 
and  in  prison.  I  do  not  think  it  likely  that  I  am  to  be  put 
to  death ;  no  woman  has  yet  been  executed  under  the  pres 
ent  administration.  Therefore,  I  doubt  whether  your  news 
can  really  be  bad  news. ' ' 

"It  does  not  concern  yourself,"  Hawthorne  said,  "but 
the  person  whose  welfare  is  nearest  to  your  heart. ' ' 

Cecilia  smiled  archly. 

' '  I  am  not  so  sure  that  you  know  who  that  is, ' '  she  teased 
him  roguishly. 

Hawthorne 's  face  was  dark. 

"I  am  very  serious  in  what  I  say,"  he  said. 

Cecilia's  demeanour  altered. 

"I  see  that  now,"  she  said.    "Tell  me  your  bad  news." 

"I  am  afraid,"  Hawthorne  fenced,  "that  it  will  shock 
you." 

"I  am  prepared,"  said  Cecilia.  "Quickness  will  now  be 
kindness. ' ' 

Hawthorne's  heart  was  in  his  mouth. 

"It  concerns  Don  Domingo  Rodriguez,"  he  gulped. 

Cecilia's  expression  did  not  alter  a  particle. 

' '  Have  they  captured  him  ? ' '  she  asked. 

"He  was  captured,"  Hawthorne  said,  "but  that  is  not 
all." 

"He  is  dead?"  Cecilia  queried. 

Hawthorne  nodded. 


THE   PROFILE  645 

"Poor  Domingo !"  Cecilia  breathed,  her  demeanour  still 
unruffled.  "I  am  sorry  for  him.  He  was  good  to  me." 

She  drew  a  deep  breath,  but  it  was  not  a  sigh. 

Then  she  shot  a  question  at  Hawthorne : 

'  *  Was  he  captured  alone  ? ' ' 

"The  chacarero  who  had  sheltered  him,"  Hawthorne 
said,  '  *  was  brought  in  with  him,  but  afterwards  released. ' y 

"I  do  not  mean  that,"  Cecilia  explained  eagerly.  "I 
mean  was  any  other  fugitive  captured  at  the  same  time?" 

"None,  as  far  as  I  know,"  Hawthorne  acknowledged. 

"You  would  have  known,"  Cecilia  sighed,  and  added: 

"Oh,  this  weary  world!  Perhaps  Domingo  is  better  off 
than  some  he  left  here  behind  him. ' ' 

She  had  shown  no  sign  of  grief  or  indeed  of  any  emotion 
whatever. 

Hawthorne  was  astounded. 

(2) 

That  night  Hawthorne  had  no  stomach  for  the  Plaza  or 
the  water-side,  yet  he  longed  to  ramble  about  in  disguise. 
He  strolled  through  the  crooked  lanes  south-east  of  the 
Franciscan  Monastery  and  the  Convent  of  Mercy.  It  was 
a  clear,  starlit  night,  warm  and  windless. 

One  of  the  unexpected  sensations  Hawthorne  experienced 
on  these  rambles  was  the  revelation  that  in  less  than  a  year 
he  had  become  so  used  to  wearing  a  hanger  or  sabre  that 
without  one  he  felt  helpless  and  unprotected.  True,  he 
had  a  sailor's  knife  in  his  belt  and  his  poniard  hidden  in 
his  bosom,  but  these  were  mere  last  desperate  resorts,  not 
weapons  for  dignified  self-assertion. 

Therefore  when  he  heard  shod  feet  approaching  him  and 
the  jingle  of  side-arms  he  crept  to  the  edge  of  the  roadway 
and  ensconced  himself  behind  the  hedge,  which,  fortu 
nately,  happened  to  be  thornless  instead  of  the  prevailing 
aloes  or  prickly  cactus. 

It  was  already  late  at  night,  for  he  had  been  wandering 
about  a  long  time,  having  encountered  no  one  till  now. 

Just  opposite  him  the  two  cavaliers  halted. 

One  said: 

"Give  me  a  light." 

There  was  a  sound  of  indrawn  breath  and  then  the  two 


646  EL   SUPREMO 

heads  were  distinct  against  the  darkness  in  the  brief  glow 
"between  them;  for  each  man  held  his  cigar  in  his  lips. 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  man  facing  Hawthorne. 
The  faint  glow  sufficiently  disclosed  the  Caballero  nose,  the 
tanned  cheek  bones,  the  deep-set  eyes,  the  long  narrow 
irregular  face  of  Estanislao  Machain. 

Hawthorne  was  amazed  that  he  should  be  in  the  city  at 
night,  more  amazed  that  he  should  be  on  foot,  but  most  of 
all  amazed  at  his  companion. 

It  was  indeed  startling  that  the  two  should  be  together, 
most  startling  that  they  should  be  conferring  in  a  dark  lane 
at  midnight. 

For,  although  Hawthorne  did  not  see  his  face,  he  indu 
bitably  recognised  the  shape  of  the  head,  the  wave  of  the 
hair,  the  ear  against  the  glow,  the  temple  and  the  cheek. 

The  other  man  was  Beltran  Jaray. 

(3) 

Hawthorne  slept  little  that  night.  Normally,  gentlemen 
like  Don  Estanislao  and  Beltran  would  be  abroad  only  on 
horseback.  Except  for  very  short  distances  only  the  lower 
classes  ever  walked  about  Asuncion.  The  mere  fact  of  the 
two  being  afoot  was  in  itself  suspicious.  The  district  in 
which  he  met  them  precluded  Hawthorne  from  conjectur 
ing  any  friend 's  house  to  which  they  might  be  on  their  way 
or  from  which  they  might  be  returning.  To  be  as  safely 
alone  together  as  possible  was  the  only  object  he  could 
think  of  which  could  have  brought  them  into  that  part  of 
the  outskirts  of  the  city.  "Why  they  should  want  to  be 
together  he  could  not  imagine.  He  recalled  Beltran 's  re 
mark  that  Estanislao  was  nearer  to  being  his  friend  than 
any  other  man  in  Paraguay;  but  the  recollection  of  that 
was  wholly  overlaid  by  his  sharp  and  vivid  memory  of 
Machain 's  malignant  sneering  tones  at  the  breakup  of  the 
conspiracy  and  his  innuendoes  to  the  effect  that  Hawthorne 
was  not  the  only  man  in  Asuncion  who  played  chess  and 
was  invited  to  sup  at  the  Palacio,  that  they  could  get  on 
well  enough  without  him:  this  just  after  begging  him  to 
attempt  Francia's  murder  over  the  chess-board. 

It  was  this  that  haunted  his  fitful  dreams  and  his  hours 
of  wakefulness. 


THE   PROFILE  647 

Next  morning  he  was  early  at  the  Government  House. 
Francia  greeted  him  cordially: 

' '  What  can  I  do  for  you  ?  "  he  queried. 

"You  can  give  me  permission/ '  Hawthorne  said,  "to 
make  a  request  of  you  just  as  if  you  were  not  a  Dictator." 

Francia  smiled,  almost  grinned. 

"Nobody  else,"  he  chuckled,  "would  venture  to  make 
such  a  request.  You  have  never  abused  any  permission  I 
have  given  you.  Your  request  is  granted." 

"Speaking  as  I  should  to  any  other  of  my  friends  in 
Asuncion, ' '  said  Hawthorne,  * '  I  suggest  that  I  should  very 
much  like  to  sup  with  you  to-night  and  play  chess." 

Francia  knit  his  brows. 

"I  should  very  much  like  to  have  you  sup  with  me 
to-night  and  play  chess, ' '  he  said, ' '  but  I  really  must  devote 
myself  to  Beltran.  I  am  worried  about  that  boy.  He 
takes  very  hard  having  lost  Angelica;  continues  moody, 
low-spirited  and  wretched.  Everything  seems  to  irritate 
him.  Even  I  irritate  him.  Only  while  playing  chess  does 
he  seem  to  have  a  respite  from  his  thoughts.  Then  he 
appears  temporarily  relieved. 

* '  He  is  so  depressed  that  I  have  more  than  once  kept  him 
in  the  Palacio  all  night." 

Hawthorne  said  nothing,  but  his  astonishment  appeared 
on  his  face. 

"You  know,"  Francia  began,  "that  I  have  several  bed 
rooms  always  ready  for  me?" 

"No,"  said  Hawthorne,  honestly,  "I  did  not  know  that," 

"Well,"  explained  the  Dictator,  "such  is  my  custom.  I 
find  it  far  more  difficult  to  fall  into  a  sound  sleep  than 
before  I  came  to  power.  I  compose  myself  on  my  bed,  turn, 
toss  and  feel  more  and  more  wakeful.  If  I  had  another 
bed  prepared  and  in  a  different  room  I  found  I  could  often 
attain  to  instant  sleep  by  changing  into  that.  The  habit 
has  grown  on  me.  In  various  parts  of  this  assemblage  of 
buildings  I  have  as  many  as  nine  rooms  which  are  set  apart 
as  bedrooms.  Sometimes  all  of  them  are  kept  ready,  some 
times  not  all,  never  fewer  than  six.  The  number  varies 
according  to  the  suggestions  of  my  sister  Teresa.  She  looks 
in  here  weekly  or  oftener  to  inspect  my  housekeeping 
and  I  enjoin  upon  Bopi  and  the  rest  to  defer  to  her 
opinions. 


648  EL   SUPREMO 

"Anyhow,  having  at  least  six  beds  standing  ready,  it  is 
a  simple  matter  to  house  Beltran  overnight.  Sometimes  he 
bids  me  good-night  and  goes  off  and  yet  I  find  him  here 
for  breakfast,  whenever  he  changes  his  mind  and  returns. 
He  has  keys  and  1  always  tell  him  which  door  is  left  un 
barred  ;  it  is  never  the  same  door  two  nights  in  succession ; 
if  it  were,  others  might  learn  which  it  was.  No  one  ever 
knows  except  Beltran." 

There  was  a  something  doting,  even  fatuous  about  Fran 
cia 's  expression  and  tone  as  he  said  this. 

Hawthorne  became  uneasy  and  more  and  more  embar 
rassed. 

Francia  regarded  him  with  a  beaming  smile. 

'  *  You  see, ' '  he  said,  ' '  how  much  my  society  means  to 
Beltran  just  now.  I  am  the  lad's  only  solace.  I  must  not 
neglect  him.  But  for  those  other  considerations  I  should 
certainly  have  you  to  sup  to-night.  I  am  pleased  that  you 
suggested  it  of  your  own  accord." 

There  fell  a  silence. 

"Is  there  anything  else  you  wish  to  say?"  Francia" 
queried  crisply. 

Hawthorne  nerved  himself. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "if  I  am  not  to  spend  the  evening  with 
you  there  is  something  I  must  tell  you  now.  I  should  have 
preferred  to  tell  you  more  at  leisure  and  more  alone. ' ' 

"We  are  at  leisure,"  Francia  said.  "I  give  you  all  the 
time  you  choose  to  take.  I  shall  permit  no  interruptions. 
Speak  out." 

Hawthorne  experienced  a  sort  of  inward  panic.  His 
thoughts  whirled,  what  he  said  surprised  himself.  Half  in 
a  daze  he  heard  himself  say : 

"Now  that  Don  Domingo  Rodriguez  is  out  of  the  way 
forever,  would  it  not  be  possible  for  you  to  consider  liber 
ating  his  widow?" 

Fleeting  expressions,  each  lasting  for  the  fraction  of  a 
second,  pursued  each  other  across  Francia 's  countenance. 
Successively  he  looked  astounded,  quizzical,  sly  and  in 
censed.  He  fixed  Hawthorne  with  an  icy,  brow-beating 
stare.  His  voice  trembled,  but  more  as  if  with  suppressed 
laughter  than  as  if  with  anger.  He  said: 

'  *  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  I  am  displeased.  I  have  told  you 
in  plain  words  that  I  am  most  eager  to  liberate  this  most 


THE   PROFILE  649 

embarrassing  of  my  prisoners.  I  am.  But  I  am  a  better 
judge  than  you  of  when  to  release  those  in  my  cuartels.  I 
yielded  to  your  arguments  about  the  Chilabers.  The  result 
would  scarcely  incline  me  to  accede  in  any  other  case.  You 
should  pay  me  the  compliment  of  crediting  that  I  mean 
what  I  say.  You  yourself  are  scarcely  less  eager  to  know 
this  lady  at  liberty.  You  show  yourself  a  poor  courtier  in 
this  regard. 

"But  this  is  not  what  displeases  me.  I  am  displeased 
and  rightly,  because,  for  the  first  time,  you  act  insincerely. 
This  was  not  what  you  came  here  to  say.  A  moment  ago 
you  had  no  intention  of  alluding  to  this  lady.  Your  fac6 
is  transparent.  You  suddenly  changed  your  mind. 

' i  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  either  say  what  you  meant  to  say 
or  make  your  farewells." 

Hawthorne  drew  a  deep  breath. 

" Excelentisimo  Senor,"  he  said,  "you  are  a  wonderful 
man. ' ' 

' '  No  proof  of  that  to-day, ' '  the  Dictator  snapped.  * '  Any 
one  could  have  read  your  face.  But  don't  say  *  Excelen 
tisimo  Senor'  to  me  again." 

"You  said  'Senor  Don  Guillermo'  to  me,"  Hawthorne 
countered. 

' '  True, ' '  Francia  smiled.  ' '  Pardon  me.  You  will  admit 
I  had  enough  provocation.  And  now,  frankly,  tell  me  what 
you  came  to  tell,  what  you  meant  to  tell  me  to-night. ' ' 

"You  are  in  danger  of  assassination,"  Hawthorne  said. 

"No  news  to  me,"  Francia  chuckled,  "I  always  am." 

"I  mean,"  Hawthorne  strangled,  "more  than  usual." 

"If  you  are  trying  to  warn  me  against  a  specific  and 
imminent  attempt,"  the  Dictator  said  coolly,  "an  enter 
prise  you  think  you  foresee  and  which  you  think  I  do  not 
foresee,  you'll  have  to  be  more  definite  than  that  to  be  of 
any  use  to  me. ' ' 

Plawthorne  wrestled  with  himself  in  spirit. 

"You  are  in  danger,"  he  said,  "from  the  man  you  trust 
most" 

"Still  too  vague!"  Francia  commented,  "and,  anyhow, 
who  are  you  to  assume  that  you  know  the  man  I  trust  most  ? 
You  could  not  name  even  the  man  I  seem  to  trust  most, 
And,  even  when  I  seem  to  trust  most,  I  am  well  on  guard. 
Before  I  had  known  you  twenty-four  hours,  I  gave  you 


650  EL   SUPREMO 

permission  to  inspect  all  my  prisons.  Be  sure  I  had  gone 
over  in  mind,  before  I  wrote  the  order,  all  the  different 
sorts  of  mischief  you  might  set  on  foot  if  secretly  ill-dis 
posed  to  me,  and  had  sketched  plans  for  blocking  every 
game  you  could  play  against  me  with  the  opportunities  I 
put  in  your  hands.  Be  assured  that  each  of  these  plans 
was  set  working  against  you  before  you  entered  the  public 
prison  next  day. 

"It  is  so  with  all  about  me.  Olegario  and  Lorenzo  and 
Basilio  could  not  steal  a  maravedi  between  them,  not  if  they 
formed  a  partnership  against  me ;  Ponciano  couldn  't  bungle 
a  single  court-case,  nor  Gumesindo  shame  me  before  an 
envoy,  nor  Andres  nor  Policarpo  misrepresent  me,  nor 
Joaquin  start  an  insurrection.  I  hold  them  all  in  the  hol 
low  of  my  hand.  As  you've  learned  at  chess,  discovering 
a  check  is  my  favourite  move  and  my  most  effective  attack, 
especially  when  the  game  seems  lost. 

"And  now,  either  leave  me  to  play  my  own  gambit  un- 
helped  or  drop  this  folly  of  veiled  allusions.  Quit  deceiving 
yourself  into  thinking  you  are  helping  me  by  nebulous 
hints.  Be  more  explicit  or  begone." 

Hawthorne  thought  hard. 

Then  he  told  what  he  had  seen  and  where,  ending: 

"A  young  man  and  an  elder  man:  extremely  ill- 
assorted.  ' ' 

"Still  oracular,  still  orphic."  Francia  commented. 
"Still  with  one  thought  on  warning  me  and  three  on  shield 
ing  the  rascals.  I  fancy  I  understand  your  tenderness.  I 
believe  you  mean  the  very  couple  I  myself  followed  a  long 
while  not  far  from  where  you  met  them  and  about  the  time 
you  encountered  them.  I  needed  no  warning.  But  I  am 
glad  to  have  your  confirmation.  I  was,  and  am,  loath  to 
believe  what  I  must  believe/' 

He  stared  gloomily  at  the  pavement. 

Hawthorne  could  not  conjecture  whether  Francia  was 
telling  the  truth  or  indulging  his  vanity  by  one  of  his  pre 
tences  to  omniscience. 

In  either  case  he  saw  there  was  no  use  in  saying  anything 
further. 


THE   PROFILE  651 


(4) 

Not  long  after  Hawthorne's  departure  Francia  set  him 
self  to  writing.  He  threw  down  quill  after  quill,  erased, 
interlined,  tore  up,  rewrote,  copied  and  recopied  until  he 
had  a  paper  to  his  mind.  Then  he  summoned  Lieutenant 
Ortellado. 

"Don  Aquiles,"  he  said,  laying  down  the  smoking  stick 
of  sealing  wax,  "I  am  about  to  entrust  to  you  the  most 
important  arrest  I  have  ever  ordered/' 

Ortellado  bowed. 

"Take  this  paper, "  the  Dictator  resumed.  "Break  the 
seals  only  when  you  are  alone  and  unobserved.  Bead  it 
well.  Consider  it  carefully.  It  is  a  delicate  assignment.  I 
realise  its  difficulty,  but  I  shall  have  you  shot  if  you  fail 
in  any  particular.  The  man  must  be  arrested  between  the 
hours  named.  To  arrest  him  before  the  first  or  after  the 
last  will  ruin  the  plans  I  have  in  mind.  He  must  not  be 
injured  in  any  way.  A  bruise,  a  scratch  on  him  anywhere 
would  be  fatal  to  my  purposes.  Handle  him  as  carefully 
as  if  he  were  my  own  and  only  son.  Most  of  all,  he  must 
be  arrested  without  any  one  suspecting  that  he  is  under 
arrest.  Only  yourself  and  your  four  assistants,  whom  you 
may  choose,  must  know  of  his  arrest.  Equally  in  secret 
he  must  be  taken  to  the  designated  spot  and  there  dis 
posed  of  as  I  have  written.  The  slightest  variation  from 
my  orders  in  time,  place  or  manner  will  wreck  my 
design." 

'  *  I  accept  the  mission,  Excellency, ' '  spoke  Ortellado.  ' '  I 
shall  not  fail  you." 

(5) 

It  was  well  on  to  midnight  when  Francia  let  Beltran  out 
of  the  main  entrance  to  the  Palacio.  The  air  was  hot  and 
still,  the  sky  overhead  cloudless,  the  stars  every  little  while 
dimmed  by  the  reflection  of  distant  lightning  from  a  great 
thunder-storm  that  muttered  on  the  horizon  far  away  over 
the  Gran  Chaco. 

"No,"  said  Beltran,  "I  won't  change  my  mind  and  sleep 
here,  and  I  shall  not  change  my  mind  later  and  return.  I 


652  EL   SUPREMO 

think  I'll  get  a  horse  and  ride  out  to  Itapua.  I'll  sleep 
better  out  there.  I  can  be  at  the  barracks  in  time  in  the 
morning. ' ' 

"Vaya  listed  con  Dios,"  was  all  that  Francia  said. 

"When  the  last  bolt  had  clanged  behind  him  and  the 
sound  of  retreating  footsteps  had  wholly  died  away,  Bel- 
tran  turned,  strolled  the  length  of  the  deserted  Plaza,  keep 
ing  about  its  middle  line,  and  halted  before  the  Cathedral 
porch,  where  the  tower  hid  him  from  the  late  loungers  along 
the  Calle  Comercio,  if  the  lightning-glares  were  bright 
enough  to  have  made  him  visible. 

He  stood  a  long  time  staring  into  the  blackness  inside 
the  dark  porch. 

Then  he  strolled  on  along  the  river-flank  of  the  Cathe 
dral,  on  past  the  church  of  San  Bias,  until  he  came  to  the 
cross-street  on  his  right  that  led  to  Casa  Velarde.  He 
stared  up  this  a  while,  walked  leadenly  along  it,  stopped 
twice  and  stared  at  the  dim  outlines  of  the  silent  house, 
strolled  on  round  it  and  the  Franciscan  Monastery,  kept 
on  to  his  left  round  the  back  of  the  Velarde  orchard,  picked 
his  way  past  the  little  marsh  that  bordered  and  overflowed 
the  lane  towards  the  Church  of  San  Roque  and  so,  still 
keeping  to  his  left,  came  back  to  the  front  of  Don  Toribio's 
mansion.  There  he  stood  awhile.  Then  he  retraced  his 
steps  and  circled  round  it  in  the  other  direction.  Again 
he  stood  and  sighed  in  the  dark. 

Following  the  way  he  had  come,  he  returned  to  the  Cathe 
dral  porch.  Between  the  three  pillars  that  supported  its 
three  archways,  under  the  middle  of  the  middle  arch,  he 
knelt  down,  knelt  on  both  knees.  He  clasped  his  hands  and 
bowed  his  head.  He  remained  there  a  long  time. 

When  he  stood  up  he  walked  firmly  and  steadily  to  the 
side  gate  of  the  Palacio  facing  the  landing  stairs,  where 
Hawthorne  had  been  admitted  to  identify  Don  Domingo 
Rodriguez.  This  door  he  unlocked  and  let  himself  into  the 
Jesuits'  garden.  He  stood  and  listened.  He  unbuckled  his 
sword-belt  and  laid  the  sabre  with  it  down  by  the  garden 
wall.  Softly  traversing  the  garden,  he  stood  and  listened 
at  the  door  of  the  library.  Noiselessly  he  let  himself  into 
the  library.  Again  he  stood  and  listened,  but  he  heard  only 
his  own  breathing  and  the  beating  of  his  heart. 

Presently  he  began  to  move,  inch  by  inch.    Inch  by  inch 


THE   PROFILE  653 

he  groped  his  way  through  the  darkness  of  the  library, 
scarcely  helped  by  the  faint  reflections  of  the  distant  light 
ning-flares  which  now  and  again  made  plain  the  outline 
of  the  windows.  He  passed  the  telescope,  the  big  table,  the 
theodolite,  and  touched  the  inner  door.  Again  he  listened. 
Cautiously  he  tried  the  door.  Without  a  click  he  opened 
it.  He  stepped  into  the  passage.  The  solid,  heavy  door 
at  the  end  of  the  passage  let  in  no  light,  the  passage  was 
pitch-dark.  Across  it  he  groped  to  the  wall  and  along  the 
wall  to  a  door.  Again  he  listened.  Then  he  tried  the  door, 
felt  it  give  noiselessly,  slipped  through  it  and  knelt  on  the 
brick  floor.  Kneeling,  he  leaned  until  he  was  on  all  fours, 
his  head  turned  sideways,  his  ear  almost  against  the  bricks. 
This  position  he  kept  until  a  gleam  of  distant  lightning 
made  the  window-space  shine  faintly  and  he  could  descry 
the  outline  of  the  bed  against  the  momentary  glimmer. 

The  silhouette  of  the  bed's  top  was  even  and  smooth. 
The  bed  was  untenanted. 

At  once  he  stood  up,  stepped  through  the  door  and  shut 
it  behind  him.  A  few  yards  along  the  same  wall  to  his 
right  he  found  a  second  similar  door  and  repeated  the 
same  manoeuvres. 

Then  he  felt  his  way  to  the  angle  of  the  passage  and  fol 
lowed  a  long,  narrow  corridor  branching  off  to  the  left. 
From  it,  with  the  same  precautions,  with  the  same  slow 
movements,  with  the  same  noiselessness,  he  entered  three 
rooms  on  its  left-hand  side.  In  each  the  bed  was  undis 
turbed. 

After  leaving  the  third  he  returned  along  the  narrow 
corridor,  passed  the  end  of  the  passage  from  the  library 
and  turned  to'  his  left  along  another  corridor  at  right 
angles  to  the  first.  On  the  right-hand  side  of  this  he  suc 
cessively  tried  and  passed  two  doors.  In  each  room  he 
made  out  an  untouched  bed.  The  time  needed  was  less  in 
each  room,  for  the  storm  over  the  Ghaco'was  drawing  nearer 
and  the  flashes  of  lightning  were  more  frequent  and 
brighter,  the  thunder  no  longer  a  mere  mutter,  but  a  heavy 
rumble. 

As  he  stood  up  to  leave  the  second  room  there  came  a 
series  of  almost  continuous  flashes  and  he  saw  brilliantly 
lit  tip  the  head  of  the  inlet;  the  second  Jesuits'  bridge 
across  it  just  opposite  the  window,  the  orchard  across  the 


654  EL   SUPREMO 

Riachuelo  and  even,  beyond  the  orchard,  the  roof  of  th 
Casal  Mansion,  the  corrugations  of  its  tiles  amazingly  div 
tinct  in  the  brief  glare. 

From  this  room  he  continued  on  down  the  corridor,  the 
smell  of  dried  leaf -tobacco  growing  more  and  more  insistent, 
and  found  and  tried  the  door  of  an  eighth  bedroom. 

The  moment  he  passed  the  door  he  made  out  an  uneven 
ness  in  the  middle  of  the  bed. 

Instantly  he  stood  rigid,  listening. 

He  heard  no  sound. 

Moving  so  slowly  that  no  movement  was  perceptible  even 
to  himself,  he  neared  the  bedstead. 

His  shoes  did  not  creak,  his  clothing  did  not  rustle,  he 
made  no  noise  as  he  came. 

Closer  and  closer  he  drew,  the  lightning-flashes  guiding 
him. 

He  could  see  nothing  but  a  long,  low  ridge  down 
the  middle  of  the  bed,  as  if  the  sleeper  were  lying  face 
down,  arms  under  and  all  covered,  head  and  all,  by  the 
sheet. 

When  his  knee  all  but  touched  the  bedstead  he  paused 
and  listened.  He  heard  no  sound  whatever. 

He  leaned  over  the  bed. 

There  came  a  vivid  flash. 

Suddenly,  both  hands  open,  the  fingers  outspread,  he  felt 
the  shape  under  the  sheet. 

It  was  merely  the  bolster  of  the  bed,  turned  lengthways 
and  covered  from  the  dust.  The  bed  had  not  been  made  up. 

When  he  was  outside  that  room  he  moved  with  less  pre 
caution,  crossed  the  corridor  and  a  room  beyond  it  and  the 
tobacco-scented  courtyard,  lighted  again  and  again  by  the 
quickening  lightning. 

Beyond  the  court  he  entered  and  crossed  a  small  empty 
room,  groped  across  a  dark  passageway  and  found  a  stair. 
Feeling  every  stone  step  of  it,  he  went  up,  inch  by  inch. 
From  its  top  he  moved  forward,  not  inch  by  inch,  but  line 
by  line,  barely  breathing.  The  door,  which  he  finally  found, 
he  groped  with  long  before  he  opened  it.  As  he  opened  it 
a  glaring  flash  revealed  the  window  opposite  him,  the  bed 
across  it,  and,  outside,  the  roof  of  the  Cabildo. 

Imperceptibly  he  sank  on  one  knee.  Alert,  he  waited  for 
the  next  flash,  his  head  low. 


THE    PROFILE  655 

ofiThe  flash  came. 

-giHe  saw  the  outline  of  the  form  under  the  bed-clothes; 

aie  shape  of  a  tall,  thin  man  lying  on  his  back.     Even  in 

ttfat  fraction  of  a  second  he  could  make  out  the  rumpled 

edges  of  the  pillow  bulged  up  on  either  side  of  the  man's 

l-.ead.    He  moved  sideways  a  trifle  and  waited  for  the  next 

-iash. 

It  showed  the  profile  of  the  upturned  face. 

Against  the  whitened  sky  he  saw  plain  the  chin  and  fore 
head  and  between  them  the  unmistakable  chisel-edged 
Caballero  nose. 

He  stood  up  and  listened. 

Nearer  the  bed  he  crept  and  nearer. 

He  leaned  over  it. 

He  could  hear  the  breathing  of  the  man,  who  made  no 
other  sound,  no  motion  whatever. 

He  slid  his  hand  inside  his  shirt  and  gripped  the  hilt  of 
his  poniard. 

He  braced  his  feet  apart,  leaned  forward  and  waited  for 
one  more  flash. 

"With  a  ripping  noise  the  lightning  blazed  close  at  hand. 

He  aimed  at  the  heart  and  struck  his  dagger  deep. 

The  thunder  burst  in  an  appalling  crash,  in  crash  after 
crash,  shaking  the  walls  and  floor. 

There  had  been  only  one  shudder  from  the  body  in  the 
bed  as  he  struck,  no  other  movement,  no  sound. 

His  ears  crushed  by  the  explosions  of  the  thunder,  he 
fled  down  the  stairs  and  along  the  corridors. 

At  the  garden  gate  he  buckled  on  his  sword-belt,  his 
hands  shaking. 

He  locked  the  gate  behind  him. 

Just  as  he  reached  his  horse,  the  storm  burst  over  the 
city. 


656  EL   SUPREMO 

CHAPTER  XLVI 

INTERCESSION 

(i) 

NEXT  morning,  under  the  beautiful  rain-washed  sky, 
through  the  charming  rain-freshened  landscape, 
Damiano,  Beltran's  mulatto  servant,  rode  his  tall,  cream- 
coloured  mule  not  many  yards  behind  his  master's  taller 
stallion  from  Itapua  to  the  city.  At  the  barrack  gate  he 
saw  his  master  dismount  and  fling  his  reins  to  an  orderly. 
As  he  was  about  to  turn  his  mule  he  saw  Captain  Gar- 
mendia  appear  under  the  archway  of  the  barrack-yard  and 
salute  his  Colonel.  Simultaneously  Lieutenant  Ortellado, 
two  privates  beside  him,  stood  up  from  the  bench  on  the 
right-hand  side  of  the  entrance  and  Lieutenant  Zorilla,  also 
with  two  privates,  stood  up  from  the  bench  on  the  left-hand 
side  of  the  door,  where  they  had  been  similarly  lolling. 
Damiano  saw  that  Captain  Garmendia  said  something,  saw 
his  master  halt,  saw  each  lieutenant  seize  one  of  his  elbows, 
saw  a  pistol  in  Zor ilia's  free  hand.  He  saw  Beltran  hand 
his  sword,  hilt  first,  to  Captain  Garmendia. 

Damiano  was  a  wise  mulatto.  He  put  his  mule  into  a 
quiet  canter  towards  Itapua.  Only  once  he  halted  and  then 
to  speak  a  few  words  to  a  peon  he  encountered.  "When  he 
was  clear  of  the  city  he  lashed  and  spurred  his  mount  to 
its  top  speed. 

Beltran  had  had  no  distinct  thoughts  the  night  before. 
His  inherited  intelligence,  his  acquired  sagacity,  his  powers 
of  insight  and  foresight,  all  his  faculties  and  capabilities 
were  drowned,  swept  away,  annihilated  by  a  hot  wave  of 
primitive  passion.  He  had  acted  merely  on  the  irresistible 
determination  that  no  other  man  should  possess  Ventura. 
Even  a  sound  sleep  had  not  restored  him.  He  was  still 
mentally  numb,  had  ridden  into  town  without  a  plan  and 
was  arrested  before  he  was  aware  what  was  happening  to 
him. 

Zorilla,  his  face  all  malignant  exultation,  was  pinioning 
him  cruelly.  Ortellado  gently  insisted  that  the  cords  should 
be  no  tighter  than  was  necessary  to  make  him  totally  help 
less. 


INTERCESSION  657 

So  pinioned  he  was  marched  to  the  Government  House; 
past  Captain  Marcelino  Sanabria  and  some  dozen  privates, 
wide-eyed  and  dumb,  in  charge  of  the  entrance ;  past  Bopi, 
half  lounging,  half  crouching  under  the  arcade  of  the  patio; 
past  the  neatly  arranged  official  table,  the  two  smaller 
chairs  and  the  Dictator's  curule  seat  empty  beside  it; 
through  a  door  in  the  far  left-hand  rear  corner  of  the 
courtyard,  along  a  corridor;  across  the  tobacco-scented 
courtyard  and  on  up  the  stair,  the  stair  he  had  climbed 
the  night  before. 

In  the  open  doorway  of  the  bedroom  he  was  halted. 

The  sunlight  poured  through  the  broad  window,  bathed 
in  intense  light  the  small  bed  and  what  was  on  it,  glittered 
intolerably  on  the  erect  haft  of  his  poniard. 

He  gazed  at  that  sparkle  and  recognised  the  hilt. 

He  recognised  also,  recognised  with  a  hideous  qualm  of 
amazement  and  realisation,  the  face  of  the  dead  man. 

It  was  the  face  of  Estanislao  Machain ! 

The  door  on  his  left  at  the  head  of  the  bed  opened. 

In  the  doorway  stood  the  Dictator. 

He  was  pale,  chalky  pale,  pale  as  the  corpse  on  the  cot. 
He  staggered  on  his  feet,  swayed,  gripped  the  jambs  of  the 
door.  Mute  he  stared  at  Beltran,  his  face  empty  of  anger, 
menace,  or  reproach,  empty  of  majesty  and  of  self-confi 
dence,  the  face  of  a  man  sick  to  death. 

Beltran  straightened  up,  suddenly  himself  and  permeated 
by  the  buoyant  calm  with  which  Castilian  blue-blood  con 
fronts  inevitable  doom. 

Three  times  Francia  strove  to  speak.  Twice  he  made 
only  an  inarticulate  sound,  a  sort  of  choking  moan.  The 
third  effort  resulted  in  human  words:  words  uttered  with 
the  voice  of  a  man  at  the  point  of  death. 

"Seiior  Don  Beltran,"  he  said,  "you  returned  to  this 
building  last  night  after  you  left  it." 

"I. did,"  Beltran  acknowledged,  curtly. 

"You  came  here  to  kill  a  man,"  the  Dictator  continued. 

"Si,  Senor/'  was  Beltran 's  answer. 

"This,"  rumbled  Francia,  "was  not  the  man  you  came 
to  kill." 

"No,  Senor,"  Beltran  confessed. 

"That,"  said  Francia,  pointing,  "is  your  dagger  where 
you  drove  it. ' ' 


658  EL   SUPREMO 

Beltran  bowed. 

"Take  him  down  into  the  patio,"  the  Dictator  com 
manded. 

"What  shall  we  do  with  the  corpse?"  Zorilla  interjected 
briskly. 

"Have  it  buried,"  Francia  snapped,  "but  bring  me  the 
dagger.  Also  bring  me  the  little  gag  that  is  in  his  mouth ; 
it  is  worth  more  than  he  ever  was,  dead  or  alive." 

As  he  was  marched  along  Beltran  could  hear  the  drag 
ging,  enfeebled  gait  of  the  autocrat  following  behind. 

By  the  official  chair  he  was  halted  and  faced  about 
towards  it.  But  the  Dictator  did  not  sit  down.  He  stood 
up  by  the  table,  leaning  on  it  heavily  with  his  left  hand, 
breathing  hard.  After  a  long  silence  he  spoke : 

"Put  him  in  the  farthest  cell  in  the  right-hand  corridor 
under  the  cavalry  barracks." 

Zorilla  saluted,  his  face  all  evil  glee. 

"And  shall  we  rivet  grillos  on  his  ankles?"  he  queried, 
gloatingly. 

Francia  stood  up  to  his  full  height,  his  hand  on  his  sword- 
hilt,  his  face  black  as  a  thunder-cloud. 

"A  barra  de  grillos!"  he  roared,  "on  him!" 

All  in  one  motion  his  sabre  leapt  from  its  scabbard, 
flashed  aloft  and  swept  down.  The  blow  was  terrific.  The 
razor-edged  blade,  swung  with  the  fury  of  a  maniac,  shore 
clean  through  Zorilla 's  skull,  eyebrow  and  jaw. 

He  fell  like  a  pole-axed  ox. 

A  saucer-shaped  piece  of  his  head,  with  one  ear  and  the 
outer  corner  of  one  eye,  rolled  across  the  courtyard  pave 
ment. 

Francia  wiped  and  sheathed  his  sabre. 

"Remove  that  carrion,"  he  commanded. 

When  the  bustling  soldiers  had  vanished  with  their  bur 
den  the  Dictator  sat  down  heavily. 

When  he  looked  up,  Ortellado  saluted. 

"Orders?"  he  enquired. 

"You  heard  the  order,"  Francia  snarled. 

"El  Supremo,"  said  Ortellado  softly,  "has  not  said 
whether  the  prisoner  is  to  be  shackled." 

Francia  eyed  him  and  Ortellado  met  his  gaze. 

' i  No  shackles, ' '  the  Dictator  finally  said,  brokenly.  ' '  But 
if  he  escapes  you  die. ' ' 


INTERCESSION  659 


(2) 

Damiano 's  mule  dropped  dead  just  in  front  of  the  veran 
dah  of  Dona  Juana  '&  mansion.  The  old  lady  had  heard  the 
hoof-beats  and  was  on  the  edge  of  the  portico  as  soon  as 
Damiano.  He  spoke  briefly.  Her  orders  to  her  aroused 
household  were  equally  brief.  "With  no  time  lost  she  was 
in  the  saddle  on  her  way  to  the  city ;  Damiano  behind  her, 
this  time  on  a  horse. 

At  the  Palacio  she  nodded  to  Captain  Sanabria  and 
marched  in,  unannounced.  Francia,  by  this  time  collected, 
rose  at  sight  of  her.  When  they  were  both  seated  he  asked : 

''And  what  brings  you  here,  Madrina?" 

"  Beltran 's  life,"  she  answered. 

1 '  I  have  given  no  orders  for  his  execution, ' '  the  Dictator 
informed  her. 

That  brought  the  poor  old  lady  to  her  knees,  her  hands 
gripping  Francia 's,  her  trembling  lips  babbling  entreat 
ies.  She  called  him  " godson,"  "Gaspar,"  every  name 
of  childhood,  every  endearment  proper  from  a  god 
mother. 

"Oh,  Gaspar,"  she  begged,  "spare  me  this  last.  There 
is  no  Isquibel  alive  in  Paraguay,  no  Jaray  save  Beltran.  I 
bore  eighteen  children,  Gaspar.  Six  died  young,  and  I  used 
to  think  I  had  felt  grief  over  those  little  graves.  I  raised 
nine  sons  and  they  all  married.  My  three  daughters  mar 
ried.  I  had  thirty  grandchildren.  And  which  are  left 
beside  Beltran  ?  Only  that  sly  Preciado  Miranda,  and  half 
witted  Carlos  Echagiie  at  Villa  Eica.  Espinosa  robbed  me 
of  six  sons  in  one  year,  all  murdered  under  colour  of  law. 
Arconte  Lopez  shot  Ildefonso.  Salvador  fell  in  the  inva 
sion.  More  Isquibels  and  Jarays  perished  in  the  campaign 
than  all  the  other  families  in  Paraguay.  I  have  only  Bel 
tran  left." 

Francia 's  face  was  harder  and  harder  as  her  wails  grew 
louder  and  her  beseechings  more  frantic. 

1 '  Zorilla ! "  he  called,  a  call  bitten  off  suddenly. 

Then  he  called  louder : 

"Don  Marcelino!" 

"When  Captain  Sanabria  came  he  curtly  ordered: 

"Drag  away  this  crazy  woman!" 


660  EL   SUPREMO 

When  the  courtyard  was  empty  and  quiet  he  sat  bent 
forward,  his  hands  clenched. 

When  he  looked  up  he  saw  Ventura  approaching. 

She  was  corseted  as  always  and  was  all  in  black,  with 
a  black  lace  mantilla  over  her  head,  relieved  only  by  the 
pearl  brooch  at  her  bosom  and  the  pearl  aigrette  in  her  hair. 
Her  lips  were  bloodless,  and  her  complexion  lead-grey.  She 
moved  like  a  sleep-walker. 

Francia  rose  to  his  feet  instantly  and  gazed  at  her  as  she 
came  on,  her  eyes  as  unflinching  as  his. 

He  took  her  hand,  bent  over  it  and  kissed  it  ceremoni 
ously. 

When  he  would  have  withdrawn  his  hand  she  held  it  and 
caught  the  other.  She  took  a  short  step  nearer  and  they 
stood,  gazing  into  each  other 's  eyes.  Before  he  realised  she 
leaned  and  kissed  his  thin,  clean-shaven,  tight-shut  lips. 

He  sprang  back,  tall  in  his  blue  uniform. 

"Why*"  he  cried. 

"The  first  and  the  last,"  said  Ventura,  seating  herself 
on  one  of  the  smaller  chairs. 

Francia  settled  into  his. 

"Why  do  you  say  that?"  he  demanded. 

Ventura  tapped  the  toe  of  her  slipper  on  the  bricks. 

"I  do  not  know  in  what  manner  this  conference  of  ours 
is  to  end,"  she  said,  "but  I  am  sure  that  this  is  to  be  »ur 
last  interview." 

"Why  do  you  say  that?"  Francia  repeated. 

"Before  we  part,"  she  said,  "you  will  understand.*' 

"Speak  on,"  the  Dictator  uttered. 

Ventura  did  not  hesitate. 

"I  have  come,"  she  said,  "to  obtain  from  you  an  order 
for  the  liberation  of  Don  Beltran  Jaray." 

' '  How  did  you  learn  that  he  had  been  arrested  ? ' '  Francia 
queried. 

' '  His  man  Damiano  saw  the  arrest, ' '  Ventura  explained. 
"He  told  my  peon  Ramon,  and  Ramon  came  at  once  to 
me." 

' '  Why  do  you  ask  me  to  liberate  this  prisoner  ? ' '  the  Dic 
tator  asked. 

"Because  I  love  him,"  replied  Ventura  simply. 

Francia  did  not  start,  nor  did  his  expression  change. 

"When  did  you  discover  this?"  he  queried. 


INTERCESSION  661 

"When  I  heard  of  his  arrest,"  Ventura  declared,  evenly. 
'I  never  even  suspected  my  real  feelings  for  him  until  that 
moment. ' ' 

"Do  you  know  why  he  was  arrested ?"  the  Dictator  en 
quired. 

"I  do  not,"  Ventura  replied,  "but  I  conjecture  that  it 
was  because  he  made  an  attempt  upon  your  life." 

'And  you  plead  for  a  foiled  assassin!"  Francia  cried. 

"I  cannot  help  myself.  I  must  plead  for  him,"  Ven 
tura  said.  "I  love  him." 

"Have  you  any  idea,"  the  Dictator  questioned,  "why  he 
stooped  to  such  heinous  villainy?" 

"I  conjecture,"  she  said,  "that  his  perfidy  was  due  to 
jealousy.  I  was  to  marry  you  and  he  is  in  love  with  me." 

Then  Francia  did  start,  paler  even  than  before.  He 
looked  at  her  and  looked  away. 

"I  had  no  guess  of  that,"  he  muttered.  "I  thought  he 
had  been  brooding  on  account  of  Angelica.  I  supposed  he 
had  no  real  motive,  but  had  been  egged  on  by  that  seoun- 
drel  Machain,  with  his  serpent 's  tongue." 

"Then  why,"  asked  Ventura,  "is  not  Don  Estanislao 
also  in  a  dungeon?" 

"Because,"  retorted  the  Dictator,  "I  had  him  laid  in  my 
bed,  bound  and  gagged,  and  Beltran  killed  him  in  my  place." 

"Oh!"  cried  Ventura. 

Francia  pressed  his  interrogatory. 

"When,"  he  said,  "did  you  discover  his  passion  for 
you?" 

Ventura  reflected. 

"It  was  after  I  named  to  you  Saint  John's  Day  for  our 
wedding  day,"  she  said.  "I  think  three  days  later,  on 
May  24th.  more  than  two  weeks  ago.  I  met  him  in  front 
of  the  church  porch. ' ' 

"Did  he  tell  you?"  came  the  query. 

"Not  in  words,"  was  the  response. 

"But  you  understood?"  he  insisted. 

"Yes,  I  understood,"  Ventura  stated;  "any  woman 
would  have  comprehended." 

"But  you  did  not  realise  that  you  loved  him?"  he  pur 
sued. 

"As  I  told  you,"  said  Ventura,  eyeing  him  severely,  "I 
never  suspected  myself  until  I  heard  of  his  arrest  to-day." 


662  EL    SUPREMO 

"You  love  him?"  he  repeated  incredulously. 

"I  do,"  said  Ventura  firmly. 

"Do  you  not  despise  him?"  he  queried,  more  incred 
ulously. 

"No,"  said  Ventura  simply,  "I  only  pity  him  and  love 
him." 

"And  you  expect  me,"  the  Dictator  browheat  her,  "to 
acquiesce  in  the  release  of  this  assassin  not  merely  in  spite 
of  your  asking  it,  but  because  you  ask  it?" 

"I  do  expect  it,"  said  Ventura  tenaciously.  "You  told 
me  you  could  refuse  me  nothing." 

Francia  groaned. 

' '  And  if  I  so  far  forget  my  duty  to  Paraguay  as  to  grant 
your  petition,"  he  questioned,  "what  do  you  mean  to  do 
with  him  when  he  is  at  liberty?" 

'  *  Marry  him, ' '  said  Ventura  calmly,  ' '  and  take  him  with 
me  to  San  Bernardino." 

"What?"  the  Dictator  exploded. 

Ventura  returned  his  gaze  without  the  flicker  of  an  eye 
lash. 

"Do  you  not  rather  expect,"  Francia  hissed,  "that  I 
have  him  dragged  here  and  that  I  bid  my  guards  hack  the 
two  of  you  to  pieces  before  my  eyes?" 

' '  No, ' '  said  Ventura  steadily.  * '  That  sort  of  cheap  bru 
tality  would  be  inevitable  in  similar  circumstances  from 
any  of  the  local  chieftains  like  the  caudillos  of  the  pampas. 
It  would  be  natural  to  a  small  man  like  Ramirez  at  Cor- 
rientes,  if,  indeed,  he  is  yet  in  power  at  Corrientes:  men 
like  Ramirez  do  not  long  retain  mastery.  You  are  too  great 
a  man  for  that  kind  of  barbarous  ferocity.  You  are  master 
of  Paraguay  because  you  are  master  of  yourself.  You  have 
all  your  life  prided  yourself  on  keeping  your  word  in  small 
things  and  great.  You  gave  me  your  word,  solemnly,  more 
than  once.  You  will  keep  it." 

"Senorita, "  said  the  Dictator,  "carried  away  by  my  love 
for  her,  I  told  my  affianced  wife  that  I  could  refuse  her 
nothing.  You  have  the  hardihood  to  tell  me  that  you  pro 
pose  to  nullify  the  pact  between  us  on  the  faith  of  which  I 
made  that  promise,  that  you  mean  to  marry  another  man 
and  that  man  a  red-handed  murderer  in  duress  awaiting 
retribution,  yet  you  hold  me  to  my  promise  after  you  have 
destroyed  1  he  ba£e  of  it ! " 


INTERCESSION  663 

"•'You  gave  the  promise  without  qualification, "  Ventura 
said,  "not  as  a  bridegroom  to  his  betrothed,  but  as  Gaspar 
de  Francia  to  Ventura  Velarde.  You  will  keep  it." 

"Senorita,"  Francia  pursued,  "do  you  not  think  there 
is  something  grotesque,  something  almost  comical,  in  re 
questing  an  absolute  ruler,  the  autocrat  of  all  his  world, 
passionately  in  love  and  eager  for  his  wedding-day  only 
twelve  days  off,  to  forego  his  bride  and  hand  her  over  to 
another  man  and  that  man  a  felon  traitor  under  sen 
tence  V 

"It  would  be  unutterably  ridiculous, "  Ventura  admitted, 
"in  reference  to  any  man  on  earth  except  you.  You  are 
lord  not  only  of  all  this  part  of  the  world,  but  of  your  own 
passions.  You  will  keep  your  word." 

' '  But, '  '  Francia  insisted,  * '  regard  me  not  as  a  ruler,  but 
as  a  human  being,  is  it  not  fantastic  to  expect  any  man  to 
rise  to  such  superhuman,  even  supernatural,  heights  of 
Quixotry?" 

"Again,"  said  Ventura,  "it  would  be  absurd  towards 
any  man  except  you.  To  every  other  man  I  ever  knew,  cer 
tainly  to  every  South  American  I  ever  knew,  love  means 
merely  the  desire  for  the  bodily  possession  of  a  specified 
woman.  Love  from  her,  even  consent  from  her,  even  acqui 
escence  from  her,  would  be  quite  unnecessary  to  the  satis 
faction  of  his  desires;  reluctance,  resistance,  hatred  even, 
would  be  rather  an  added  piquancy  to  the  flavour  of  tri 
umph.  You  are  moulded  on  altogether  another  pattern  of 
manhood.  You  are  wholly  above  such  pettiness  now  as  you 
have  always  been  in  the  past.  You  told  me  the  truth  when 
you  said  you  never  desired  any  woman  except  Petrona, 
never  regarded  the  creatures  who  could  be  purchased,  never 
wanted  any  woman,  even  in  imagination,  unless  she  was 
your  fit  mate  and  wanted  you.  You  sometimes  appear 
petty,  but  you  never  are  petty,  never  have  been  petty.  You 
are  wholly  above  descending  now  to  what  has  always  been 
beneath  you.  Your  manhood  is  altogether  upon  too  im 
perial  a  scale.  What  would  be  superhuman  to  any  other 
man  is  natural  to  you.  I  regret  as  much  as  you  the  shatter 
ing  of  our  dream ;  regret  it  more  since  you  will  have  no 
sense  of  guilt  to  haunt  you  when  memories  of  it  return.  I 
did  not  want  to  be  the  commonplace  wife  of  a  mediocre 
tstanciero,  least  of  all  of  a  man  capable  of  great  things  and 


664  EL   SUPREMO 

in  reach  of  great  ambitions  who  failed  to  attain  his  possi 
bilities  through  his  own  defects  of  character.  I  wanted  to 
be  the  consort  of  a  great  man  and  a  great  ruler  and  revel 
in  his  companionship  and  in  solacing  his  trials  and  uplift 
ing  him  to  the  pinnacle  of  his  mighty  powers. 

1  'My  dream  is  shattered.  I  mourn  for  it  as  you  do. 
.v  "But,  if  I  no  longer  desire  you,  you  no  longer  desire  me. 
That  is  your  magnanimous  nature.  It  will  now  be  no  real 
sacrifice  for  you  to  resign  me ;  as  it  would  now  be  the  utter 
most  sacrifice  for  me  to  resign  myself  to  you,  just  the  sac 
rifice  you  refused  to  accept  last  February  and  which  I  then 
truthfully  denied  that  I  was  making  in  pledging  myself  to 
mate  with  you.  There  was  then  no  other  man.  Lady  Bax- 
endale  was  right.  To  a  loveless  marriage  there  always  en 
ters,  later  or  sooner,  the  other  man.  Thank  God,  in  our 
case,  he  appeared  before  my  realisation  brought  us  any 
shame." 

"Seiiorita,"  Francia  said,  "when  you  came  here  you  said 
you  were  not  certain  of  the  outcome  of  this  interview.  You 
appear  to  have  been  very  sure.  What  was  your  uncer 
tainty?" 

"Gaspar,"  said  Ventura,  "there  was  just  a  chance,  just 
one  little  chance  in  a  million,  that  I  might  have  been  mis 
taken  in  my  estimate  of  you,  that  you  might  be,  after  all, 
merely  an  ordinary  man,  made  great  by  circumstances, 
that  you  were  not,  in  fact,  the  illustrious  man  I  thought 
you,  not  the  august,  heroic  man  I  have  found  you." 

Francia  winced. 

"And  suppose,"  he  said  feebly,  "I  am  not.  what  you 
think  me?  Suppose  I  am  about  to  refuse  your  petition 
and  order  Beltran's  execution?  What  then?" 

' '  Then, ' '  said  Ventura  raptly,  ' '  I  shall  never  see  another 
day.  I  shall  not  survive  Beltran.  In  heaven  or  on  earth, 
in  purgatory  or  in  hell,  I  am  wholly  Beltran's." 

In  a  great  fervour  of  emotion  Francia  snatched  a  pen 
and  wrote  an  order,  wrote  two  orders. 

"Madame,"  he  said  in  French,  "here  is  the  order  upon 
the  jailers  for  the  release  of  your  lover;  here  is  the  order 
to  the  Bishop  to  dispense  with  the  banns  and  many  you 
two  at  once.  You  have  won.  I  yield. 

"And  may  God  bless  and  keep  you  forever." 

There  was  a  moment's  pause. 


DUST   AND   ASHES  665 

Then  Francia's  manner  changed,  his  face  was  con 
vulsed. 

"And 'make  haste,  Madam,  make  haste,"  he  gasped.  "I 
cannot  keep  this  level  of  celestial  exaltation  long.  Beware 
lest  I  am  human,  after  all.  Despatch  your  wedding  and 
flee  to  San  Bernadino. 

1 1  And  remember,  any  Velarde  or  Jaray  who  ever  crosses 
the  line  of  the  Salado  and  Lake  Ipacaray  dies." 

"I  shall  remember  only,"  said  Ventura,  "that  north  of 
that  line,  I  and  mine  are  permitted  life  and  happiness  by 
your  magnanimity." 

CHAPTER   XLVII 

DUST  AND   ASHES 

NO  indication  of  any  dread  that  Francia's  vindictive 
disposition  might  dominate  him  appeared  in  Ven 
tura's  behaviour.  She  walked  with  Beltran  from  the  cav 
alry  barrack  across  the  Plaza,  into  Calle  Concepcion,  and 
past  the  Recalde  and  Mayorga  houses  to  her  father's.  As 
soon  as  Dona  Juana  declared  herself  able  to  mount  her 
palfrey  Beltran  set  out  with  his  grandmother  to  Itapua 
to  commence  and  speed  preparations  for  migrating  to  San 
Bernardino.  The  next  morning  they  rode  into  the  city  at 
dawn,  and,  soon  after  sunrise,  Beltran  and  Ventura  were 
married  at  the  Encarnacion  church,  before  a  gathering  of 
most  of  the  old  Spaniards  of  Asuncion  and  its  neighbour 
hood,  with  not  a  few  Creoles.  Immediately  after  the  wed 
ding  Beltran,  Ventura,  Dona  Juana,  Don  Toribio  and  Car- 
lota,  with  a  caravan  of  carts,  wagons  and  pack  mules,  and 
a  mighty  retinue  of  servants,  attendants  and  peons,  started 
on  their  journey  to  San  Bernardino,  stopping  that  night  at 
Luque  at  the  estancia  of  Don  Pio  Casal. 

Hawthorne  accompanied  the  cavalcade  to  Itapua,  and 
there  bade  them  farewell.  Carmelo  and  Rafael  rode  on  to 
Luque,  but  Desiderio  and  Don  Vicente,  Don  Gregorio  and 
a  score  of  other  cavaliers,  who  had  formed  a  sort  of  escort 
of  honour  for  the  exiles,  returned  to  the  city  with  Haw 
thorne. 

After  his  siesta  he  received  an  invitation  to  sup  at  the 
Palacio. 


666  EL   SUPREMO 

He  found  Francia  grim,  pale  and  haggard,  but  entirely 
himself. 

"Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "we  have  been  used  to  speak 
to  each  other  eye  to  eye,  as  the  Guaycarus  say,  without  con 
cealment.  There  is  no  use  in  my  wearing  a  mask.  I  have 
liad  the  worst  shock  of  my  life,  and  am  still  shaken  and  un 
nerved.  I  shall  be  but  a  gloomy  table-comrade,  I  fear. 
But  we  must  all  of  us  make  the  best  of  life  as  it  comes,  and 
I  promise  to  be  as  companionable  as  I  can.  It  was  good  of 
you  to  come  and  try  to  cheer  me  up." 

"It  is  an  honour,"  said  Hawthorne,  "to  hear  you  say 
this.  And  I  trust  I  shall  soon  see  you  as  cheerful  as  usual. ' ' 

' '  Humph ! ' '  snorted  Francia.  *  *  If  you  can  really  cheer 
me  up  you  will  deserve  to  be  burnt  alive  in  the  Plaza  as  a 
dangerous  magician." 

At  the  table  he  stood  as  if  in  a  brown  study.  There  was 
a  long  and  awkward  silence.  Then,  instead  of  inviting 
Hawthorne  to  be  seated  he  began  to  pace  up  and  down  a 
few  paces  each  way,  knitting  his  brows. 

He  paused,  facing  Hawthorne. 

"Senor  Don  Guillermo,"  he  said,  "I  am  worse  shaken 
than  I  realised.  Pardon  me,  but,  if  we  are  to  sup  together 
agreeably,  I  must  make  a  humiliating  confession.  I  find 
that  the  sight  of  a  weapon  on  another  man  is  altogether  too 
much  for  me.  "Weapons  I  cannot  see  I  do  not  mind,  but  a 
visible  weapon  unmans  me.  Would  it  be  asking  too  much 
to  request  you  to  lay  aside  your  belt  and  hanger  ? ' ' 

"Not  too  much  to  ask  nor  to  command,  if  you  choose  to 
-command  rather  than  to  ask, ' '  said  Hawthorne,  gracefully, 
unbuckling  his  belt. 

He  stood  the  sabre  against  the  nearest  orange  tree. 

When  they  were  seated  Francia  remarked : 

"I  am  well  pleased  with  you,  Don  Guillermo.  You  have 
comported  yourself  with  much  discretion.  Did  you  realise 
•why  I  wanted  you  to  confine  yourself  to  the  city  and 
suburbs?" 

"No,"  Hawthorne  confessed,  "I  did  not.  I  have  not 
thought  about  it  at  all." 

"I  wanted,"  the  Dictator  explained,  "time  to  have  my 
emissaries  discover  and  locate  all  the  new  nitriaries  created 
in  the  interest  of  your  conspiracy.  Also  I  wanted  them  to 
complete  some  other  similar  duties.  I  am  very  well  pleased 


DUST   AND   ASHES  667 

with  you,  Don  Guillermo.  I  knew  Domeque  had  a  notable* 
capacity  for  organisation,  but  it  required  an  impulse  from 
you  to  set  free  his  energy.  Through  your  agency  Paraguay 
possesses  four  hundred  registered  nitriaries  in  addition  to 
those  already  in  existence  when  you  came;  and  I  have 
added  to  my  stores  some  six  hundred  pounds  of  good,  clean, 
saltpetre.  Besides  the  state  sulphur  mine  I  have  another 
and  a  far  better  one.  My  supplies  of  willow-charcoal  are 
quadrupled.  Also  Paraguay  is  fortified  by  the  activity  of 
twenty  Catalan  bloomeries  turning  out  a  steady  product 
of  malleable  steel  and  of  six  blast-ovens  producing  price 
less  ingots  of  cast-iron. 

1 '  I  do  not  mean  to  exert  any  compulsion  or  pressure  upon 
your  freedom  of  action,  indeed,  I  promise  never  to  abuse 
you  in  any  such  way:  I  have  far  too  much  to  thank  you 
for.  And  I  have  not  yet  tried  whether  persuasion  would 
be  effectual  towards  inducing  you  to  engage  in  the  manu 
facture  of  gunpowder  and  the  founding  of  cannon  in  my 
interest,  as  you  proposed  to  do  for  my  destruction.  "We 
will  let  that  matter  lie  at  present  and  perhaps  talk  of  it 
on  some  other  occasion.  What  I  wish  to  emphasise  now  is 
that  even  if  you  never  make  an  ounce  of  powder  for  me  or 
cast  even  one  four-pounder,  I  have  much  reason  to  be  grate 
ful  to  you  on  mere  grounds  of  increased  material  for  mu 
nitions.  Do  you  wonder  I  am  well  pleased  with  you?" 

1 '  No ! "  said  Hawthorne,  dazedly. 

""Well,"  the  Dictator  pursued,  "what  I  want  to  learn 
is,  how  well  are  you  pleased  with  me  ?  I  know  that  a  year 
ago  you  came  to  Paraguay  with  the  intention  of  overthrow 
ing  a  harsh,  bloodthirsty,  implacable  tyrant;  I  know  that 
a  few  days  ago  you  clinked  glasses  with  me  and  toasted  me 
as  Paraguay's  ideal  executive.  I  am  curious  as  to  the  pre 
cise  meaning  of  your  toast  and  as  to  the  stages  by  which 
your  observations  led  you  to  your  conclusions." 

Hawthorne  ruminated. 

"As  to  the  mass  of  Paraguayans,"  he  said,  "I  behold 
them  innately  and  unalterably  incapable  not  merely  of  self- 
government,  but  of  taking  any  part  in  or  materially  influ 
encing  the  policies  of  any  form  of  government.  The  Guar- 
anies  and  the  peons  of  European  descent  are  alike  of  such 
a  nature  that  they  must  be  either  sheep  harried  by  the  wolf 
or  sheep  guarded  by  the  shepherd.  Tapes,  chacareros  or 


668  EL   SUPREMO 

hacendados,  they  are  all  of  one  kind,  submissive  and  stupid. 

"The  aristocracy  I  grossly  overestimated:  they  are  so 
plausible  of  speech,  so  resolute  in  demeanour.  I  judge  them 
capable  of  spurts  of  valour,  but  not  of  tenacity  of  purpose ; 
of  destructive  unanimity,  out  not  of  permanent  cohesion; 
of  spectacular  self-assertion,  but  not  of  patriotic  self-ef 
facement.  They  appear  to  me  prone  to  self-seeking,  but 
incapable  of  mutual  subordination.  In  their  hands  no  truly 
democratic  government  could  exist.  If  a  republican  form 
of  government  were  set  going  in  Paraguay  it  must  degen 
erate  into  an  oligarchy  of  placeholders  fattening  on  plunder 
from  the  treasury  or  more  likely  into  a  tyranny  veiled  un 
der  the  forms  of  popular  government. 

"I  conclude  that,  although  I  believe  in  self-government 
as  theoretically  best  for  all  men  everywhere,  yet,  prac 
tically,  here  and  now,  as  Paraguayans  are  and  as  Paraguay 
is,  the  best  government  for  this  country  and  people  is  a 
benevolent  absolutism.  It  is  quite  as  obvious  that  you  are 
the  only  man  in  Paraguay  capable  of  maintaining  order 
as  it  is  that  you  are  the  only  man  enjoying  the  confidence 
of  the  people.  Your  popularity  was  as  manifest  during  the 
convention  as  your  preeminence  is  at  all  times. ' ' 

' '  You  consider  my  administration  commendable  1 ' '  Fran 
cia  queried. 

' '  Not  in  all  its  details, ' '  Hawthorne  replied  sturdily. 

"I  presume  not,"  the  Dictator  grunted.  "For  instance, 
liave  you  heard  how  Zorilla  came  to  his  end?" 

"I  have,"  Hawthorne  answered. 

' '  I  suppose, ' '  Francia  pursued,  his  eyes  on  Hawthorne 's, 
* '  that  in  New  England  you  would  call  that  a  murder  ? ' ' 

"We  should,"  Hawthorne  affirmed  unflinchingly,  "and 
so  would  most  of  civilised  mankind. ' ' 

"You  don't  mince  words,"  the  Dictator  growled.  "Now 
attend  to  me.  You  acknowledge  that  the  convention  em 
powered  me  to  make,  interpret  and  execute  laws  of  all 
sorts?" 

"Certainly,"  Hawthorne  conceded. 

"You  acknowledge  my  right  as  Dictator  to  order  Zorilla 
shot  without  reason  given  ? ' ' 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  admitted. 

"What  is  the  difference,"  Francia  pursued,  "between 
ordering  him  shot  and  killing  him  myself?" 


DUST   AND   ASHES  669 

"The  difference/'  Hawthorne  rejoined  steadily,  ^be 
tween  an  execution  and  a  murder. ' ' 

"Pooh!"  the  Dictator  snorted.  "Hadn't  I  the  right  to 
gazette  myself  executioner?" 

"Not  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,"  Hawthorne  main 
tained  fearlessly. 

"That  is  the  kind  of  injustice  I  meet  with  from  all 
men,"  Francia  protested.  "I  had  reprimanded  Zorilla 
repeatedly  for  fiendish  cruelty  where  he  might  have  been 
merciful  in  his  interpretation  of  my  orders.  I  had  rebuked 
him  for  insolence  to  me.  Finally  my  patience  gave  way, 
and  I  said  to  him : 

:  '  Senor  Don  Mateo,  you  make  me  unpopular  with  your 
ruffianism,  you  anger  me  by  your  impertinence.  If  you 
maltreat  another  victim  I  '11  have  you  shot ;  if  you  presume 
again  I'll  kill  you  myself.' 

' '  I  warn  no  man  twice. ' ' 

Hawthorne  bowed. 

"I  am  willing  to  admit,"  he  said,  "that  what  would 
seem  a  murder  elsewhere  may  be  a  legal  execution  in 
Paraguay. ' ' 

' '  Thanks ! ' '  the  Dictator  grunted.  ' '  Awhile  ago  you  said 
you  did  not  commend  my  administration  in  all  its  de 
tails.  Did  that  imply  commendation  for  my  rule  in  gen 
eral?" 

"Yes,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"Holding  that  view,"  Francia  said,  "are  you  willing  to 
push  our  schemes  for  amplifying  the  i/er&a-trade  ? " 

"I  am,"  Hawthorne  affirmed. 

"Such  being  the  case,"  Francia  continued,  "the  sooner 
you  set  out  for  Atira  the  better." 

"What?"  cried  Hawthorne. 

"Certainly,"  said  the  Dictator,  calmly.  "Don  Lupercio 
has  now  nothing  against  me,  as  I  am  not  to  marry  his  niece. 
You  can  talk  him  around  in  three  days ;  the  male  Velardes 
are  all  ductile  as  wax,  he  most  of  all ;  and  then  you  can 
push  all  your  auxiliary  preparations  for  yerba-curing  and 
packing,  along  with  t/er&a-growing.  Meanwhile,  I  shall 
perfect  preliminaries  towards  making  yerba  a  government 
monopoly,  which  I  have  long  meditated.  When  all  our 
local  arrangements  are  in  good  train,  you  can  prepare  to 
sail  for  Europe  with  your  first  cargo  of  yerba." 


670  EL    SUPREMO 

Hawthorne  looked  his  amazement. 

<l Either  give  it  up  altogether,"  said  Francia,  "or  pro 
mote  it  vigorously.  And  now,  since  our  meal  is  despatched, 
let  us  go  to  chess. ' ' 

In  the  library  Hawthorne  won  three  short  games. 

Francia  pushed  back  his  chair,  lit  a  fresh  cigar  and  began 
to  pace  up  and  down,  scowling  and  glum. 

"I  cannot  play  chess  to-night,"  he  said.  "I  am  still 
shaken  and  unstrung.  Shutting  myself  up  as  I  did  last 
night  did  not  benefit  me.  I  did  not  grow  calmer,  I  only 
brooded  and  could  not  read  or  occupy  myself.  Your  visit 
to-night  is  doing  me  good,  but  I  am  not  fit  for  chess. ' ' 

He  took  short  turns  like  a  caged  beast,  chewing  at  his 
cigar. 

Then  he  burst  out  into  an  impassioned  tirade : 

"It  is  not  so  much  what  has  befallen  me  as  how  it  hap 
pened  that  maddens  me.  I  can  see  now  that  I  was  and  am 
to  blame.  No  man  can  carry  to  a  successful  conclusion  two 
incompatible  purposes.  I  was  foredoomed  to  failure  be 
cause  I  was  blind.  I  might  have  married  and  raised  a 
family  of  sons  and  found  one  capable  of  succeeding  me  or 
seemingly  so.  Likely  enough  I'd  have  had  no  better  luck 
than  Septimius  Severus  or  Oliver  Cromwell,  but  all  might 
have  gone  smoothly  as  long  as  I  lived,  and  I  might  have 
died  happy  in  the  promise  of  stability  for  Paraguay 'a  pros 
perity.  Again,  I  might  have  chosen  a  grown  man  fit  to 
be  my  successor,  deputed  to  him  part  of  the  cares  of  gov 
ernment  and  found  him  all  I  thought  him,  with  a  like  re 
sult.  But  the  two  lines  of  policy  could  not  succeed  to 
gether,  could  hardly  appear  to  succeed.  Even  had  the 
house  of  cards  outlasted  me  I  should  have  been  merely  re 
peating  Micipsa's  blunder  and  fostering  a  Jugurtha  to  ex 
terminate  my  progeny;  no  man  born  of  woman  could  rise 
superior  to  the  temptation.  I  know  all  that  now,  and  I 
should  have  seen  it  from  the  first. 

"But  even  after  I  had  garnished  my  fool's  paradise  it 
need  not  have  ended  in  just  this  hideous  way.  I  suffer  at 
the  loss  of  Ventura.  I  loved  her,  loved  her  hungrily.  But 
a  settled  man  of  forty-five  cannot  and  does  not  love  with  the 
f  furious  passion  that  consumes  a  young  man  in  his  first 
prime.  I  loved  her;  but,  while  my  heart  yearned  for  her, 
while  I  burned  to  have  her  for  my  bride,  my  head  much 


DUST   AND   ASHES  671 

more  longed  to  have  her  for  my  consort  and  helpmate. 
That  sort  of  reflective  desire  does  not  amount  to  a  conflagra 
tion  of  all  a  man's  faculties  of  brain  and  sense.  It  is  not 
having  lost  her,  hut  how  I  lost  her,  that  makes  me  rage. 

"You  told  me  the  truth  when  you  said  I  was  in  danger 
from  the  man  I  trusted  most.  I  did  trust  Beltran.  My 
intellect  appraised  him  highly,  he  pleased  all  my  senses, 
my  heart  went  out  to  him,  I  wanted  his  affection  so  much 
that  I  fooled  myself  into  believing  I  had  it.  I  trusted  him 
with  my  head,  my  heart  and  my  instincts.  Only  the  inertia 
of  long  habit  preserved  me.  Unconsciously,  involuntarily,  I 
devised  tests  and  took  precautions  long  after  I  had  ceased 
to  have  any  intention  to  test  him  or  any  suspicion  that 
precautions  were  necessary.  Your  warning  really  saved 
me,  for  I  had  lulled  my  misgivings  to  sleep  with  the  notion 
that  it  was  one  of  the  Mirandas  I  had  seen  with  Estanislao ; 
you  know  they  are  not  unlike  Beltran.  I  was  that  much  of 
a  fool.  I  trusted  Beltran  to  that  extent. 

' '  And  what  drives  me  frantic  is  the  thought  that  he  ought 
to  have  been  all  I  believed  him  and  has  turned  out  com 
pletely  the  reverse.  If  he  only  had  been  man  enough  to 
tell  me  he  loved  Ventura!  I  idolised  that  boy  sufficiently 
to  give  up  Ventura  to  make  him  happy.  But,  however 
much  I  trusted  him,  he  could  not  trust  me!  That  is  the 
thought  that  makes  me  almost  a  maniac.  If  he  had  con 
fided  in  me  that  would  have  proved  him  worthy  for  the 
role  I  had  assigned  to  him.  I  would  have  had,  to  solace 
me  for  my  personal  loss,  the  thought  that  I  was  making 
Ventura  happy,  that  I  was  making  Beltran  happy,  that  I 
had  estimated  him  correctly,  that  married  and  happy  with 
Ventura  for  consort,  he  was  doubly  a  fit  successor  to  con 
tinue  my  administration  and  ensure  happiness  to  my  trust 
ful  Guaranies  and  all  Paraguay.  I  could  have  borne  the 
shock  to  my  self-love  and  the  wound  to  my  vanity  if  I  felt 
I  was  perpetuating  the  blessing  of  peace  for  the  republic. 
But  Paraguay  lies  under  a  curse :  while  it  seems  to  ennoble 
the  lowly  it  appears  at  the  same  time  to  degrade  every 
patrician  born  here  or  setting  foot  on  the  soil. 

"Just  think  of  Beltran!  Fighting  like  a  paladin  at 
Saragossa,  honoured  by  friends  and  foes;  similarly  hon 
oured  all  through  his  adventures  in  Spain ;  winning  laurels 
and  gaining  experience  of  every  phase  of  drill,  tactics  and 


672  EL   SUPREMO 

strategy;  moulded  to  the  measure  of  life's  greatest  oppor 
tunities,  placed  in  reach  of  the  loftiest  prizes  of  ambition: 
and  he  must  cast  it  all  away  for  a  mean-spirited  jealousy, 
must  descend  to  assassination ! 

* '  Always  assassination  in  Paraguay. 

"Once  too  often  for  me! 

"I  told  you  I  revelled  in  the  zest  of  the  game,  in  the 
risk  of  it,  in  the  secret  relish  of  it,  in  the  keen  triumph  of 
it!  I  revel  no  more.  This  has  crushed  me.  All  the  zest 
has  vanished. 

' '  In  the  larger  sense  I  see  myself  baffled  at  every  turn  of 
external  diplomacy  and  internal  policy.  I  am  hopeless  of 
winning  recognition  of  Paraguayan  independence  from  the 
nations  of  Europe,  and  establishing  diplomatic  relations 
with  them.  I  must  keep  trying,  but  it  will  not  come  in  my 
time.  I  am  hopeless  of  establishing  our  contention  that  the 
Parana  is  an  international  water-way  free  to  vessels  of  all 
nations.  The  Portenos,  with  their  greed  for  port-dues, 
block  me;  Candioti  and  Artigas  block  me.  England  will 
not  entertain  my  protests.  I  gloried  in  the  mere  obstacles. 
Now  I  gloom  over  the  situation  and  wonder  is  it  worth 
while  to  try ;  like  as  not  Pezuela  or  La  Serna  is  now  on  the 
march  across  the  Chaco  with  an  overwhelming  force  to 
reduce  Paraguay  once  again  to  the  status  of  an  appanage 
of  Spain. 

"But  I  must  not  give  way  to  the  thoughts.  I  must  do 
the  best  I  can  here  at  home. 

"What  is  that  best? 

"A  very  poor  best. 

"A  nation  ought  to  consist  not  merely  of  a  lower  class 
of  labourers  and  yeomen,  of  a  middle  class  of  landowners 
and  traders,  but  also  of  an  upper  class  of  leisured  men  of 
means.  We  have  peons  and  Tape  Indians  and  chacareros 
to  spare.  Our  lower  class  is  almost  all  Paraguay.  We  have 
not  a  few  estancieros  and  comerciantes,  and  most  of  them 
loyal  Creoles.  But  the  moneyed  men  of  Paraguay  are  all 
old  Spaniards,  almost  to  a  man.  I  have  used  rny  best 
intelligence  and  every  device  imagination  could  suggest  to 
make  them  good  and  loyal  citizens.  I  despair  of  the  possi 
bility  of  it.  They  will  emigrate  or  force  me  to  annihilate 
them.  Once  they  have  vanished  that  will  be  the  end  of 
any  hopes  of  a  real  nation  in  Paraguay,  for  these  perverse 


DUST   AND   ASHES  673' 

Goths  have  all  the  wealth  and  most  of  the  brains  of  the 
country.  A  populace  without  brains  can  never  be  a  gen 
uine  nation  and  many  men  of  small  wealth  can  never  give  a 
country  that  impetus  towards  prosperity  which  is  not  only 
possible  but  easy  for  far  fewer  men  of  larger  means.  Be 
sides  the  old  Spaniards  and  the  Yelardes  and  Casals,  we 
have  no  men  of  large  means.  The  old  Spaniards  are  a  valu 
able  component  of  the  population  of  the  country.  Their  sil 
ver  table  services,  their  silks  and  satins  and  velvets  and 
court-swords  and  pomatumed  wigs,  their  fiestas  and  ter- 
tulias,  their  bathings  and  guitar-twangings ;  all  that  must 
vanish  forever.  And  innocent  gaiety  and  suave  urbanity 
are  national  assets  of  no  mean  value.  I  grieve  to  lose  all 
that  out  of  Paraguay.  Without  it,  without  them,  the  na 
tion  will  degenerate  into  a  herd  of  boors,  the  country  retro 
grade  till  it  is  hardly  more  than  a  wilderness. 

"And  a  few  days  ago  I  hoped  I  might  make  Paraguay  a 
great  nation !  For,  in  defiance  of  reason,  I  hoped  to  over 
come  all  external  obstacles:  the  light  of  Beltran's  optimism 
seemed  to  promise  great  possibilities  in  respect  to  diplo 
macy.  And,  whereas  I  had  always  roused  their  antagonism, 
I  somehow  felt  that  Beltran  might  get  on  the  right  side  of 
the  old  Spaniards  and  cajole  them  into  loyalty.  ^  Now, 
what  a  change  in  my  outlook !  And  what  a  change  in  me ! 
From  hopes  of  great  public  usefulness  and  a  peaceful  old 
age,  I  see  myself  as  I  am  and  as  I  shall  be.  In  regard  to 
Paraguay  I  must  reduce  myself  to  the  hope  of  keeping  off 
assaults  from  without  and  of  repressing  seditions  within,  of 
merely  conserving  the  peasant  contentment  of  my  Guar- 
anies,  and  that  no  more  than  for  my  lifetime,  as  I  can  see 
no  ray  of  hope  for  a  prolongation  of  peace  after  I  am  gone  ; 
once  my  hand  relaxes  all  will  be  devastation  and  confusion. 
The  luck  that  sent  Beltran  could  not  be  duplicated  in  a 
million  years.  I  '11  find  no  hopeful,  no  possible  material  for 
a  successor.  After  me  will  come  some  caudillo,  some  nonen 
tity,  some  Gomez,  or  Mendez  or  Lopez  or  Perez  or  Benitez 
or  Ramirez  or  Martinez  or  Fernandez. 

"In  regard  to  myself  I  dare  not  go  to  a  fiesta,  should 
there  ever  again  be  a  fiesta  in  Paraguay.  I  could  not  ride 
out  to  any  suburban  mansion,  not  with  a  regiment  of 
guards.  I'd  see  an  Augustin  Lopez  behind  every  bush.  I 
can  never  again  hold  a  levee.  To  greet  a  throng  of  men 


674  EL   SUPREMO 

in  court  suits  is  forever  beyond  me;  the  sight  of  their 
swords  would  drive  me  raving.  I  cannot  receive  my  own 
officers  to  confer  with  me  without  having  each  leave  his 
sword  outside.  I  dare  not  admit  to  any  audience  any  for 
eigner  or  stranger  unsearched.  I  dare  not  sleep  two  nights 
in  succession  in  the  same  bed.  I  dare  not  ride  abroad  with 
out  guards  before  and  behind,  and  they  must  sweep  the 
street  clean;  the  sight  of  a  bystander  within  pistol  shot 
would  make  me  quake  internally.  I  am  condemned  to  life 
imprisonment  and  worse.  I,  who  have  taken  philosoph 
ically  all  the  dangers  and  uncertainties  of  life,  see  myself 
so  shattered  in  character  that,  although  my  intellect  views 
death  with  calm  resignation,  my  instincts  drive  irresistibly 
to  the  most  contemptible  precautions  to  protect  my  life. 

"To  protect  my  life,  forsooth,  which  is  now  worth  noth 
ing  to  me.  This  is  the  curse  I  must  endure,  that  the  less  I 
value  my  life  for  what  it  brings  me  the  more  I  must  treasure 
it,  like  a  miser  with  his  gold ! 

' '  Of  course,  I  know  it  is  my  duty  to  preserve  my  life  for 
the  sake  of  my  Guaranies.  But  I  should  prefer  to  be  dig 
nified  about  it,  not  crawling  and  contemptible.  And  I 
know  that  the  more  I  save  myself  the  less  I  shall  be  worth 
saving.  I  have  a  wild  beast  in  my  blood.  Even  now,  at  the 
thought  of  Beltran  and  Ventura  together,  I  can  hardly 
restrain  myself  from  commanding  my  troops  to  harry  San 
Bernardino  and  leave  no  soul  alive.  I  shall  repress  my 
ferocity  because  they  are  out  of  sight.  But  here  at  Asun 
cion,  do  what  I  will,  seclusion  and  loneliness  will  deteri 
orate  me.  I  shall  grow  more  and  more  harsh.  The  old 
Spaniards  will  be  more  and  more  a  thorn  in  my  flesh.  I 
cannot  go  on  forever  coddling  and  wheedling  them.  They 
remain  hostile.  Once  I  warned  them  myself,  twice  I  have 
deputed  Gumesindo  to  blunder  an  attempt  at  warning 
them.  The  amnesty  after  the  dissolution  of  your  con 
spiracy  was  their  last  warning.  The  next  sedition  I  detect 
I'll  obliterate  the  whole  pestilential  clan.  Yes,  even  Don 
Bernardo,  even  the  Bishop.  Even  they  are  mere  rubbish. 
The  chief  difference  is  that  while  the  ex-Intendente  is  a 
well-meaning,  ineffectual,  foolish  old  gentleman,  Padre  de 
Panes  is  a  well-meaning,  ineffectual,  gentlemanly  old  fool. 
Don  Bernardo  has  a  dash  of  docility  in  his  gentlemanli- 
uess,  the  Bishop  has  a  dash  of  obstinacy  in  his  foolishness. 


DUST   AND   ASHES  675 

And  they  are  the  best  of  their  class.  I'll  brook  no  more 
conspiracies.  At  the  first  suspicion,  I  '11  stand  them  against 
a  wall  and  have  them  shot  in  a  body  or  pack  them  into  the 
dungeons,  or  confine  them  in  the  public  prison,  or,  if  the 
cuartel  will  not  contain  them,  banish  them  to  Tevego.  The 
first  sharp  speech  of  Don  Bermudo  Larreta  that  is  reported 
to  me  I'll  have  that  old  Pelado  shot  or  bayoneted.  I  feel 
that  I  am  at  the  end  of  my  self-control,  that  my  indulgence 
to  them  has  been  too  great,  that  my  magnanimity  has 
evaporated. ' ' 

Here  Hawthorne  interrupted. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  he  said,  "that  there  should  be  no  lim 
its  to  the  magnanimity  of  the  man  who  could  behave  as  you 
did  to  Beltran  and  Ventura." 

"No  limits!"  Francia  groaned.  "Every  man  is  born 
with  only  a  certain  share  of  magnanimity  or  of  capacity  for 
magnanimity.  I  conceive  that  all  mine  was  used  up  to  the 
last  crumb  when  I  signed  those  two  orders  for  Ventura." 

He  glared  at  Hawthorne  and  then  flung  himself  into  a 
chair  by  the  big  table,  staring  at  the  ceiling. 

"Always  ingratitude,"  he  said.  "I  won  forty  difficult 
suits  at  law  for  Domingo ;  I  refused  one  as  unjust :  he  hated 
me  implacably.  I  saved  Estanislao's  patrimony  for  him; 
he  hated  me  unrelentingly.  I  grant  amnesty  to  the  old 
Spaniards.  They  hate  me.  I  gave  back  his  eyesight  to 
Ventura's  father,  she  abandons  me.  I  made  Beltran  my 
deputy  and  heir,  he  turns  on  me.  Life  is  all  dust  and 
ashes ! ' ' 

He  crossed  his  arms  on  the  table  and  bent  his  head  on 
his  elbows.  Hawthorne  rose  and  walked  to  him.  The 
bowed  head  did  not  move.  Hawthorne  laid  a  hand  on  the 
quivering  shoulder. 

"Gaspar!"  he  said. 

Francia  sat  up  and  smiled. 

"Guillermo,"  he  managed  to  utter,  "you  are  right!  I 
must  be  philosophical  now  and  henceforward  as  hereto 
fore,  as  if  I  were  worth  saving!" 

"You  are  worth  saving!"  Hawthorne  ejaculated. 

"Although  you  only  approve  my  .administration  in  its 
totality,"  Francia  twinkled,  "and  not  in  all  its  details." 

"Even  so,"  Hawthorne  smiled  back  at  him,  "what  ad 
ministration  was  ever  perfect  in  all  its  details?" 


676 


EL   SUPREMO 


"That  word/7  Francia  said,  standing  up,  " gives  me  an 
idea.  I  cannot  play  chess.  But  perhaps  I  am  still  suffi 
ciently  myself  to  argue.  Start  me.  After  my  abolition  of 
Zorilla,  just  name  the  detail  of  my  administration  which 
you  most  object  to." 

Hawthorne  reflected. 

"Condemning  men  to  death,"  he  said,  "without  evi 
dence  or  defence. ' ' 

"As,  for  instance,"  the  Dictator  shot  at  him,  thoroughly 
revived,  and  lighting  a  fresh  cigar. 

"As  Pedro  Carbonel,"  said  Hawthorne. 

"Evidence!"  cried  Francia,  "what  need  of  evidence  or 
witnesses?  I  saw  him  knife  Pablo  as  plainly  as  I  see  you. 
I  was  not  much  further  off  than  you. ' ' 

"Then  you  are "  Hawthorne  began  to  say,  and 

stopped. 

"Yes,"  Francia  triumphed,  "my  name  is  Gaspar.  And 
I  have  roamed  the  streets  at  night  as  Pai  Gaspar  these 
many  years.  Cosme  knows,  of  course,  and  enjoys  the  joke, 
and  keeps  his  counsel  and  mine.  So  does  Pai  Mbatu. ' ' 

Hawthorne  sat  stunned. 

Presently  he  remarked : 

"It  seems  to  me  Pai  Gaspar  retains  some  zest  for  the 
game." 

' '  Perhaps, ' '  Francia  admitted.  ' '  I  may  be  saved  in  char 
acter  as  in  person  by  the  inertia  of  habit.  I  have  had  to 
imitate  Haroun  al  Rasehid  and  circulate  in  disguise,  or  I 
should  never  learn  enough  of  what  goes  on  in  Asuncion 
to  know  whether  my  spies  were  lying  to  me  or  telling  the 
truth." 

"At  that  rate,"  Hawthorne  pursued,  "you  should  find 
your  life  worth  living  yet  and  yourself  worth  saving. ' ' 

"For  life  imprisonment!"  Francia  commented  bitterly, 
as  suddenly  gloomy  again  as  he  had  been  momentarily 
brighter. 

He  gnawed  at  his  cigar  and  then  resumed : 

' '  Suppose  me  worth  saving,  how  am  I  to  go  about  protect 
ing  myself  ? ' ' 

"It  seems  to  me,"  Hawthorne  said,  "that  you  ought  to 
understand  what  to  do  far  better  than  I  could." 

"Not  at  all,"  Francia  retorted,  vigorously.  "When  I 
watched  you  and  Beltran  playing  chess  I  saw  further  into 


DUST   AND   ASHES  677 

the  game  than  either  of  you.  You  are  outside  this  game  of 
hide  and  seek  and  should  see  further  into  it  than  I  at  just 
the  few  points  I  overlook;  which,  sooner  or  later,  must 
come  to  be  the  vital  points." 

Hawthorne  reflected. 

"My  first  comment,"  he  began,  "would  be  that  I  have 
never  been  able  to  conjecture  why  you  have  a  strong  guard 
and  a  cordon,  even  an  unnecessarily  strong  cordon,  of  sen 
tinels  all  day  and  not  only  no  guard  but  not  even  one  single 
sentinel  after  dark.  That  seems  to  me  preposterous.  I 
should  say  either  no  sentinels  at  all  or  else  perpetual  sen 
tries,  day  and  night ;  but  if  at  one  time  and  not  at  another, 
then  by  all  means  by  night. ' ' 

Francia  pinched  his  cheek  meditatively. 

* '  In  the  first  place, ' '  he  said,  * '  sentinels  after  dark  would 
scare  my  Guaranies  away  from  my  window;  a  cordon  of 
sentries  would  keep  them  away  altogether." 

"As  you  yourself  have  said,"  Hawthorne  countered, 
"that  you  must  abandon  your  practice  of  night  audiences 
entirely  and  forever,  that  consideration  vanishes. ' ' 

1 '  Certainly, ' '  the  Dictator  agreed,  ' '  I  was  explaining  the 
past,  not  arranging  for  the  future.  And  as  to  my  other 
considerations,  I  had  to  confer  with  numerous  petitioners 
by  daylight,  therefore  I  needed  a  guard  to  inspect  appli 
cants  and  admit  only  those  proper  and  probably  safe.  At 
the  same  time,  I  needed  a  cordon  of  sentries  to  ensure  that 
no  one  approached  me  except  past  the  guard. 

"By  night  any  intruder  would  certainly  be  hostile.  As 
the  best  pistol-shot  in  Paraguay  and  almost  her  best  swords 
man,  I  have  felt  entirely  able  to  protect  myself,  especially 
as  the  Jesuits  built  for  all  time,  if  not  for  all  eternity; 
their  walls  are  thick,  their  doors  heavy  and  heavily  iron- 
bound,  their  window-grills  so  strong  and  so  solidly  built 
into  the  walls  that,  although  the  bars  appear  wide-set,  no 
man  could  squeeze  through  any  except  those  of  my  audi 
ence-window  under  the  mirador,  nor  could  any  one  man 
pry  them  apart;  so  it  was  hardly  probable  that  any  one 
man  could  force  his  way  into  the  Palacio ;  as,  in  fact,  none 
ever  has.  If  any  should,  I  was  not  afraid.  I  am  a  light 
sleeper  and  from  under  a  cot  or  bed  one  has  an  ideal  op 
portunity  to  aim  true. 

"As  against  a  concerted  attack  I  have  not  been  so  reck- 


678  EL    SUPREMO 

less  or  so  remiss  as  you  suppose.  There  is  always  a  strong 
guard  all  night  in  the  cavalry  barrack  and  a  stronger 
guard  in  the  infantry  barrack.  The  Plaza  and  the  streets 
round  about,  from  San  Bias  church  to  the  Dominican  Con 
vent,  and  back  from  the  river  as  far  as  Calle  Encarnacion, 
are  always  patrolled  by  unobtrusive  idlers  with  orders  to 
ignore  individuals  but  to  report  at  once  at  the  barracks 
anything  like  a  gathering  or  a  body  of  men  in  motion.  As 
you  know,  there  is  an  all-night  guard  at  the  foot  of  the 
landing  stairs.  So  I  have  been  and  am  almost  as  well 
guarded  by  night  as  by  day." 

"That  leaves  out  of  account  the  inlet,"  said  Hawthorne. 
"You  are  habitually  in  your  library  with  the  door  open 
into  the  garden.  You  are  often  in  the  garden,  absorbed 
with  your  telescope,  wholly  in  the  dark.  What  is  to  pre 
vent  a  miscreant  from  swimming  the  lagoon,  scrambling  up 
the  bank  and  biding  his  time  in  the  garden?  What  is  to 
prevent  a  band  of  miscreants  from  slipping  one  by  one  into 
the  bushes  and  scrub  on  the  banks  above  and  below 
Soloaga's  shipyard,  lurking  there  unsuspected,  swimming 
the  lagoon  and  rushing  you  all  at  once?" 

Francia's  eyes  twinkled. 

"You  must  let  me  keep  one  or  two  secrets,"  he  smiled. 
"Be  assured  no  band  of  cut- throats,  no  single  bravo,  will 
ever  swim  the  inlet-lagoon  of  the  Riachuelo  and  scale  the 
bank  of  my  garden ;  I  am  well,  even  perfectly,  protected  on 
that  side. 

' '  You  see,  my  arrangements  have  not  been  silly  nor  accL 
dental ;  the  point  is  how  to  better  them,  how  to  diminish  the 
risks,  or  abolish  the  risks,  I  run.  In  my  place,  what  would 
you  do?" 

"I,"  said  Hawthorne,  "would  abandon  this  attractive 
abode  and  migrate  into  the  Cabildo.  Then  I  should  clear 
a  broad  space  round  it  by  tearing  down  some  of  the  low, 
ramshackle  buildings  to  the  southeast  and  both  buildings  to 
the  southwest,  between  it  and  the  Riachuelo.  On  this  side 
I  should  sacrifice  the  entire  two-storied  portion  of  this  mass 
of  buildings  all  along  the  southeast  side  of  the  small  south 
patio  which  Espinosa  used  for  a  tobacco  factory  and  which 
you  still  use  for  a  tobacco  warehouse.  .That  side  of  that 
courtyard  could  be  closed  by  a  high  wall. 

"That  would  give  you  broad,  open  spaces  all  about  the 


DUST   AND    ASHES  679 

Cabildo.  You  could  then  have  a  small  guard-house  built 
some  yards  from  each  corner  of  the  Cabildo  and  keep  a 
guard  of  three  men  in  each  day  and  night,  with  two  senti 
nels  always  patrolling  between  each  pair.  With  a  fifth 
guard  at  the  entrance  of  the  Cabildo  you  would  be  as  safe 
as  possible,  for  the  Cabildo  is  stronger  built  and  more  heav 
ily  barred  than  this  mass  of  buildings.  You  would  not  be  so 
comfortable  in  it,  but  the  courtyard  is  large  enough  to 
permit  you  to  use  your  telescope  and  the  dividing  wall 
assures  you  reasonable  privacy.  That  is  the  sum  of  my 
advice." 

"As  I  listen,"  Francia  said,  "I  seem  to  hear  myself 
thinking  out  loud.  I  have  acquired,  I  think,  all  the  prestige 
I  am  likely  to  gain  by  living  in  this  Palacio.  While  I  lived 
here  the  alto  was  an  asset;  as  there  is  no  other  two-story 
structure  in  Paraguay,  it  added  to  the  impression  of  my 
preeminence.  Once  domiciled  in  the  Cabildo  it  would  be 
well  to  demolish  the  alto,  as  then  no  other  building  would 
overshadow  the  CabMo,  either  actually  or  metaphorically. 
I  can  think  of  no  safer  arrangements  than  those  you  sug 
gest,  and  I  had  thought  of  all  of  them  for  myself.  I'll 
adopt  them. 

"And,  at  the  same  time,  I'll  sweep  away  some  anachro 
nisms  in  my  methods  of  ruling.  While  I  hoped,  by  found 
ing  a  dynasty  or  training  a  successor,  to  ensure  the  per 
petuation  of  my  government,  I  had  need  of  ministers.  If 
I  can  merely  postpone  chaos  until  my  death,  I  require  no 
cabinet.  Why  should  I  not  manage  in  form  as  well  as  in 
fact  all  the  details  of  the  administration?  When  I  move 
into  the  old  Palacio  I'll  rid  myself  of  Gumesindo  and 
Ponciano  and  all  the  rest  except  Andres  and  Policarpo. 
The  additional  hard  work  imposed  upon  me  will  make  me 
feel  less  my  loneliness  and  isolation,  and  the  steady  labour 
will  keep  me  from  brooding.  The  more  I  am  occupied  the 
better  off  I  shall  be. 

"When  I  start  clearing  land  around  the  Cabildo  I'll 
keep  on  in  all  directions  until  I  have  opened  straight  streets 
throughout  the  city.  Your  disapproval  of  that  plan  of 
mine  I  dismiss  as  a  personal  whim  of  yours.  But  it  is  the 
only  piece  of  bad  advice  I  ever  had  from  you.  All  your 
other  advice  has  been  good.  Your  conception  of  measures 
to  ensure  my  safety  coincides  with  my  own.  And  I  think 


680  EL   SUPREMO 

better  of  my  notions  since  your  independent  hitting  upon 
the  same  ideas  confirms  my  judgment.  Comfort  matters 
little  to  a  lonely  recluse.  What  I  shrink  from  is  not  dis 
comfort  but  deterioration,  as  I  said  a  while  ago.  I  have 
hideous  tendencies  to  hold  in  leash.  At  the  moment  I  am 
suddenly  ashamed  of  unbosoming  myself  to  you  as  I  never 
have  to  any  human  being.  My  impulse  is  to  have  you  shot 
at  dawn  to  make  sure  my  weakness  will  never  be  divulged. 
But  be  assured  I  shall  not  yield  to  my  impulse.  You  may 
sleep  in  unruffled  tranquillity." 

With  the  word  "sleep"  Hawthorne  thought  he  heard  a 
tone  which  he  interpreted  as  a  dismissal.  He  stood  up 
and  they  passed  out  into  the  garden.  At  the  first  glimpse 
of  the  stars  he  felt  a  sudden  revulsion  of  feeling  towards 
his  companion.  Those  same  stars  shone  down  in  Cecilia's 
hut  in  the  prison.  The  sight  of  them  somehow  made  Fran- 
cia  seem  only  a  cruel  tyrant.  And  the  touch  of  his  hanger 
as  he  found  it  by  the  orange-tree,  of  his  belt  as  he  buckled 
it  about  him,  somehow  made  the  Dictator  seem  a  cowardly 
tyrant.  As  he  walked  behind  him  under  the  archway, 
across  the  fore-court  and  to  the  outer  doorway,  he  was 
aware  of  a  tide  of  angry  hostility  rising  within  him.  Some 
thing  suggested  how  easy  it  would  be  to  grasp  his  hidden 
poniard  and  plunge  it  into  Francia's  back.  Something 
whispered  to  him  that  Cecilia  would  then  be  free.  His  rea 
son  told  him  that  the  troops  would  likely  butcher  every 
prisoner  in  their  fury  at  losing  their  adored  Carai,  but  his 
weaker  nature  toyed  with  the  idea.  His  hand  still  grasped 
the  hilt  of  the  poniard  while  the  Dictator  unbarred  the 
door  and  shot  back  the  bolts. 

As  the  door  swung  inward,  Francia  suddenly  exclaimed : 

"That  smell!" 

As  he  heard  the  words  and  smelt  the  strange  blend  of  un 
pleasant  odours,  or  even  before,  Hawthorne  saw  a  female 
form  hurl  itself  through  the  opening  of  the  door,  saw  her 
arm  uplifted  and  realised  one  more  assassin.  He  could 
not  catch  at  her  or  strike  at  her  with  his  fist,  since  his 
right  hand  clutched  the  hilt  of  his  dagger.  The  instinct  to 
save  the  great  man  dominated  him  without  his  knowing  it. 
Poniard  and  all,  his  right  hand  came  out  of  his  bosom  and 
struck  with  all  his  lightning  strength.  He  felt  the  blade 
plunge  deep.  The  black-clad  form  collapsed  between  them, 


DUST   AND   ASHES  681 

Francia  slammed  the  door  and  threw  one  bar  across  it,  then 
the  others,  then  shot  the  bolts. 

Hawthorne  could  hear  the  dry  breath  rattle  in  the  Dic 
tator's  throat. 

But  when  he  spoke  his  voice  was  controlled. 

" There  are  candles  in  the  guard-room/'  he  said. 

Hawthorne  stood  petrified  until  Francia  returned,  put 
ting  his  tinder-box  into  his  waistcoat  pocket  as  he  came, 
his  left  hand  trembling  so  the  candle  shook. 

By  its  light  they  both  saw  the  pitifully  limp  ankles,  the 
poniard -hilt  gleaming  in  the  candle  rays;  all  else  a  hud 
dle  of  black  gown  and  black  shawl;  all  else  except  the 
face. 

Hawthorne  stared  at  the  face,  bent  over  it,  sank  on  one 
knee  and  scrutinized  what  he  shrank  from,  then  staggered 
to  his  feet  and  groaned: 

"I  have  killed  Doila  Cecilia  Rodriguez." 

"Yes!"  Francia  echoed,  in  a  strange  voice.  "You  have 
killed  Dona  Cecilia  Rodriguez!" 

"Do  you  realise  what  this  means  for  me?"  Hawthorns 
snarled  at  him.  And  he  poured  out  a  torrent  of  self- 
reproach,  imprecations,  curses  and  revilings  at  the  Dic 
tator. 

Standing  and  eyeing  him  Francia  was  now  wholly  him 
self,  the  candle  flame  did  not  so  much  as  quiver.  When  he 
spoke  Hawthorne  realised,  for  the  first  and  last  time  in  his 
life,  what  it  was  to  acknowledge  a  master,  to  yield  to  a 
superior  will. 

"Man!"  he  said,  "be  silent  and  listen  to  me.  I  realise 
what  this  means  to  you  far  better  than  you  do.  You  have 
killed  a  woman  whom  you  never  set  eyes  on  in  your  life 
till  the  instant  you  stabbed  her.  Contain  yourself  until 
to-morrow  and  you  will  find  no  cause  to  upbraid  yourself 
or  execrate  me.  Hold  the  candle ;  there  must  be  ink  on  the 
table  in  the  officer's  room." 

He  led  the  way  haughtily,  head  erect,  Hawthorne  meekly 
following. 

In  the  small  room  where  Beltran  had  so  often  presided 
Francia  found  pens,  tried  a  dozen  and  finally  wrote  a  pa 
per.  He  handed  it  to  Hawthorne,  who  read  it  by  the 
candle-light. 

It  ordered  Gomez  to  release  from  the  cuartel  any  pris- 


682  EL    SUPREMO 

*  - 

oner,  male  or  female,  whom  Don  Guillenno  Atorno  should 
specify. 

' '  When  you  have  made  use  of  that  order, ' '  Francia  said 
meaningly,  "you  will  no  longer,  Guillermo,  find  fault  with 
yourself  or  with  me/' 

Again,  near  the  main  door,  they  "both  stared  at  the  dead 
woman,  and  Francia  covered  her  face  with  the  corner  of 
her  shawl. 

'Do  you  recognise  the  smell  now,  Guillermo?"  he  asked, 
sniffing. 

"Partly  that  of  a  Payagua  toldo,"  Hawthorne  replied. 

"And  the  rest?"  Francia  insisted. 

"I  do  not  recognise  the  other  component,"  Hawthorne 
said. 

"I'll  wager  you  do,"  the  Dictator  sneered,  "and  are  try 
ing  to  protect  the  delinquent,  after  your  sentimental  fash 
ion.  Never  mind,  I  recognise  it  and  comprehend." 

"But,"  Hawthorne  quavered,  "if  this  is  Senora  Rodri 
guez  here  dead,  who  is  the  lady  in  the  hut  inside  the  cuartel 
courtyard  ? ' ' 

"That  is  what  I'd  like  to  know  and  don't,"  said  Francia. 
' '  Ask  her  to-morrow.  Perhaps  she  '11  tell  you. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XL VIII 

CECILY 

(i) 

THE  bland  Castilian  outer  calm  that  swathed  the  vol 
canic  nature  of  Gomez  the  jailer  was  visibly  ruffled 
at  being  disturbed  even  before  the  sun  had  cleared  the 
horizon.  Yet  his  amazement  showed  for  but  a  moment; 
almost  instantly  he  was  all  suavity  and  eagerness  to  oblige. 
He  unlocked  the  gate  of  the  inner  stockade,  roused  the  old 
negress  and  admitted  Hawthorne. 

Inside  the  hut  he  found  her  standing,  as  fresh,  neat  and 
seemly  as  if  she  had  had  unlimited  time  for  a  toilet.  At 
sight  of  his  face  she  exclaimed : 

' '  You  have  news !    Is  it  all  over  1 ' ' 

"All  over,  Senorita,"  he  answered;  "she  is  dead/' 


*•  CECILY  683 

"Poor  thing,"  she  mourned.  "I  did  my  best  for  her. 
They  could  have  escaped,  but  they  would  think  of  nothing 
but  revenge." 

And  then,  as  they  gazed  at  each  other,  she  cried : 
t  "Oh,  Will,  it  is  such  a  relief  to  be  able  to  speak  Eng- 
lisn. 

The  next  moment  his  arms  were  about  her  and  she  was 
sobbing  on  his  shoulder. 

When  she  quieted  he  asked : 

"Is  your  name  Cecilia?" 

"Yes  "  she  gulped,  "Cecilia  D'Arcy,  but  please  call  me 
Cecily." 

As  they  walked  together,  hand  in  hand,  like  children,  up 
Calle  Santo  Domingo,  with  the  early  sunlight  and  the  clean 
dawn-wind  on  their  faces,  they  heard  fifes  and  drums  and 
saw  before  them  the  escort  customary  to  an  official  pro 
claiming  a  decree.  As  they  turned  the  corner  opposite  the 
church  of  the  Incarnation  they  heard  the  lando  read : 

"Henceforward  and  forever  Payagua  Indians  would  be 
allowed  in  Paraguay  only  between  sunrise  and  sunset.  All 
toldos  of  Payagua  Indians  wherever  found  in  Paraguay 
were^to  be  immediately  and  totally  destroyed.  Any  Pa 
yagua  Indian,  male  or  female,  found  constructing  a  toldo 
would  be  instantly  put  to  death,  as  would  any  Payagua 
found  in  Paraguay  between  sunset  and  sunrise." 

Walking  along  Calle  Encarnacion  they  heard  the  sound 
of  the  drum  and  fifes  die  away  in  the  distance  behind  them. 
Together,  hand  in  hand,  he  guiding  tenderly,  they  crossed 
the  swamp  of  the  Riachuelo  on  the  very  log  along  which 
Hawthorne  had  followed  Don  Gregorio  on  his  first  after 
noon  in  Asuncion  a  year  ago.  At  Casa  Mayorga  the  entire 
household  was  agog  to  welcome  Cecily. 

When  she  reappeared,  bathed,  combed  and  freshly  at 
tired,  they  had  a  gay  breakfast,  over  which  she  told  her 
story.  For  she  was  the  reverse  of  reticent  since  her  release. 
"After  Aunt  Lucy  died,"  she  continued,  "brother  Phelim 
and  I  were  as  alone  as  if  we  had  no  kinsfolk  on  earth. 
Phelim  was  for  seeking  his  fortunes  overseas,  for  he  said 
he  hated  Ireland  almost  as  much  as  England.  When  he 
told  me  we  were  to  sail  for  Buenos  Aires  I  said  perhaps  we 
had  cousins  there,  for  maybe  Aunt  Roberta  had  left  some 
children,  we  had  never  been  told  whether  she  had  any,  who 


684 


EL   SUPREMO 


was  it  she  married,  some  name  like  Balcarres?  And  he 
swore  and  said  he  did  not  care  whether  it  was  Balcarres  or 
Ballincollig  or  Ballinhassig,  he  did  not  know  the  name 
and  he  did  not  want  to  know  it.  If  he  thought  she  had  left 
any  children  there  he  'd  go  somewhere  else,  he  was  ashamed 
of  every  drop  of  Goad  blood  in  his  body,  and  hated  all  the 
Goads;  they  were  all  the  same;  the  Goads  of  Tamworth 
Lodge  were  only  the  worst  of  all  of  them,  they  were  all 
contemptible.  They  talked  as  if  running  off  to  marry  a 
brave  Irish  officer,  and  him  distinguished  on  the  field,  was 
the  greatest  of  all  crimes.  They  were  all  alike.  Even  Aunt 
Lucy  was  half  a  Goad  and  ashamed  of  her  sister.  If  it 
hadn't  been  for  the  spite  and  malice  of  some  of  the  rest 
of  the  Goads  we  'd  never  so  much  as  have  known  where  our 
father  and  mother  were  buried.  Aunt  Lucy  herself  had 
acknowledged  she  had  burnt  their  miniatures. 

' '  He  raved  that  way  all  during  the  voyage,  whenever  he 
had  had  too  much,  and  that  was  often,  for  the  fourteen 
weeks  were  dull  and  tiresome. 

"At  Buenos  Aires  we  lodged  with  the  family  of  Don 
Medardo  Benitez,  whom  I  did  not  like  at  all.  And  I  dis 
liked  the  men  who  frequented  the  house  and  the  men 
Phelim  brought  there.  Some  of  them  paid  me  compliments 
and  I  liked  them  least  of  all.  And  Phelim  quarrelled  with 
me  because  I  did  not  like  them.  There  was  a  young  Don 
Feliciano  Chiclana,  who  wanted  to  marry  me.  They  said 
his  father  was  a  learned  man  and  wealthy.  But  he  himself 
was  detestable.  Then  there  was  an  Englishman,  a  Mr. 
Henry  Okes,  and  another,  a  Mr.  William  Stroud.  I  did 
not  like  either  of  them.  But  Phelim  raged  at  me  and  cursed 
me  and  said  I  was  a  fool  to  refuse  the  chance  of  a  good 
husband,  and  he  called  me  a  bad  sister  and  said  he  had  lost 
money  at  cards  to  Mr.  Stroud  and  I  ought  to  marry  him 
for  his  sake.  I  did  not  hate  Mr.  Stroud,  only  I  could  not 
like  him.  But  I  disliked  Mr.  Okes  and  I  hated  Don  Fe 
liciano.  Phelim  quarrelled  with  me  dreadfully  and  hardly 
spoke  to  me.  He  was  away  more  and  more,  sometimes  out 
two  nights  in  succession.  I  was  very  lonely,  for  Dona 
Pastora  Benitez  and  I  did  not  get  on  well  together  and 
her  two  daughters  I  could  not  like. 

' '  Then  Phelim  did  not  come  home  at  all.  I  never  saw  him 
again.  I  began  to  realise  that  something  dreadful  haxl  hap- 


CECILY  685 

pened.  So  I  had  to  talk  to  Doiia  Pastora.  She  said  I  was 
a  fool  to  cry,  Phelim  was  not  worth  crying  about.  Then 
she  began  to  ask  how  much  money  I  had.  I  would  not  let 
her  know  how  little  it  was,  but  she  suspected,  and  said  I 
ought  to  marry  Don  Feliciano.  I  said  I  was  going  to  see 
Mr.  Ponsonby"  Staples,  the  English  Consul.  She  said  I 
could  go  if  I  wished,  but  she  would  not  go  with  me  nor 
send  any  one  with  me,  if  I  chose  to  go  out  into  the  streets 
alone  I  could  take  the  consequences.  I  had  never  gone  out 
without  one  of  them  with  me  or  one  of  the  maids,  at  least, 
and  then  I  had  only  gone  to  church  at  the  Cathedral  or  the 
church  of  San  Domingo.  I  said  she  ought  not  to  refuse  to 
send  some  one  with  me,  but  she  was  obstinate,  and  I  thought 
she  was  trying  to  scare  me  into  marrying  Don  Feliciano. 
I  was  frightened.  I  was  afraid  to  go  out  alone  and  more 
afraid  not  to  go.  I  went.  It  was  horrible.  Men  spoke  to 
me  rudely,  insultingly.  I  did  not  know  the  way  to  the 
British  Consulate,  and  when  I  stopped  some  ladies  and 
asked  them  they  were  haughty  and  contemptuous.  I  felt 
hopeless.  Then  I  met  Don  Feliciano.  He  stopped  me  and 
though  I  did  not  half  understand  him  I  was  terrified.  I 
started  to  run,  and  from  where  I  was  I  only  knew  the  way 
to  the  church  of  San  Domingo.  Just  before  I  reached  the 
church  a  Spanish  gentleman  stared  at  me  as  I  came  and 
planted  himself  in  my  way.  He  called  to  me  before  I  was 
near  him: 

"  ' Cecilia !  Why  are  you  running?  Why  are  you  alone ? 
What  does  this  mean  ? ' 

"I  had  never  set  eyes  on  him  before,  and  I  was  panic- 
struck.  I  avoided  him  and  ran  on,  with  him  after  me, 
calling : 

"  'Cecilia!     Cecilia !' 

"I  rushed  into  the  church  and  into  the  priest's  compart 
ment  of  the  nearest  confessional.  It  was  empty  and  I  hid 
there  a  long  time.  When  I  crept  out  and  looked  about  the 
church  there  was  no  one  in  sight.  I  went  up  near  the  altar- 
rail  and  kneeled  down  and  begged  God's  pardon  for  what 
I  was  going  to  do.  For  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  stay 
there  until  dark  and  then  slip  out  and  drown  myself  in 
the  basin  of  the  fountain.  I  was  certain  that  death  would 
be  better  than  going  back  to  Senora  Benitez.  While  I  was 
praying  and  trying  not  to  sob  out  loud,  I  heard  a  voice 


686  EL   SUPREMO 

behind  me.  I  did  not  know  much  Spanish  then,  but  I  un 
derstood  what  he  said: 

"  '  There,  look  at  her.  There  she  is.  Do  you  believe 
me  now  ? ' 

"After  a  short  silence  I  heard  a  swish  of  skirts,  a  soft 
hand  was  laid  on  my  shoulder  and  a  woman's  voice  said: 

"  'Senorita,  may  I  speak  to  you?' 

"I  turned. 

' ' I  might  have  been  looking  into  a  mirror. 

"She  was  as  much  startled  as  I  was. 

"She  explained  that  her  husband,  Don  Domingo  Rodri 
guez,  had  come  home  in  great  agitation  and  had  appeared 
amazed  at  finding  her  there.  When  he  accounted  for  his 
excitement  by  telling  of  seeing  her  alone  on  the  street  and 
running,  of  her  passing  him,  of  his  pursuing  her  into  the 
church,  of  her  hiding  in  a  confessional,  of  his  waiting  until 
she  came  out,  of  his  then  surmising  that  she  was  de 
ranged,  and  returning  home  for  assistance  from  her  nurse 
and  maid,  she  suspected  him  of  insanity.  They  had  quar 
relled,  and  he  had  proposed  to  settle  the  dispute  by 
returning  to  the  church  with  her.  So  they  had  found 
me. 

"Our  astonishing  resemblance  amazed  us  both. 

"When  we  told  each  other  our  names  we  were  morfc 
amazed. 

"She  questioned  me  further,  and  as  soon  as  I  told  her 
my  mother  was  born  Emily  Goad  and  her  mother  Cecilia 
Nesbit  she  asked  whether  my  mother  had  a  sister  Roberta. 
At  once  she  told  me  she  had  been  born  Cecilia  Balcaree, 
and  was  my  own  cousin. 

"Then  I  told  her  my  story. 

"They  took  me  home  with  them  and  were  good  to  me. 
Don  Domingo  had  my  things  brought  from  the  Benitez 
house  and  instituted  a  search  for  Phelim.  It  was  two  days 
later  when  Dofia  Cecilia  gently  broke  the  news  to  me  that 
he  had  been  found  in  the  Riachuelo  below  the  hide  ware 
houses. 

"After  his  funeral  they  were  everything  to  me.  I  learnt 
Spanish  and  became  acquainted  with  many  people  in 
Buenos  Aires,  through  them  p,nd  Uncle  Preciado  Balcarce, 
who  was  kind  1  o  me,  though  his  second  wife  did  not  get  on 
well  with  Dona  Cecilia. 


CECILY  687 

"I  was  not  unhappy  at  Buenos  Aires  and  very  happy  at 
Corrientes. 

"When  we  came  here  and  Domingo  was  arrested  I  did 
What  I  could  to  comfort  Cecilia.  She  was  so  crushed  with 
anxiety  that  she  could  not  go  to  the  prison  the  third  day. 
I  went  in  her  place.  No  one  knew  the  difference.  That 
put  into  my  head  the  idea  of  how  to  set  him  free. 

"You  know  the  rest." 

(2) 

Hawthorne  judged  it  politic  to  go  early  to  the  Palacio 
and  rehearse  Cecily's  story  to  the  Dictator.  He  appeared 
to  relish  it  and  took  large  pinches  of  snuff. 

"A  brave  and  resolute  young  woman,"  he  commented. 
* '  I  am  glad  she  is  at  liberty.  Her  devotion  was  worthy  of  a 
better  cause.  I  infer  that  you  mean  to  marry  her.  Nat 
urally.  Well,  I  entirely  approve." 

They  were  interrupted  by  the  entrance  of  a  lieutenant 
and  four  soldiers  convoying  Soloaga.  Francia  glared  at 
him. 

"Bribon,"  he  snarled,  "did  I  not  yesterday  order  you 
to  select  eleven  lapacho  timbers  for  use  in  the  extension 
of  the  barracks  ? ' ' 

"Yes,  Excellency,"  Soloaga  replied,  submissively. 

"Where  are  they?"  Francia  demanded. 

' '  Excellency, ' '  Soloaga  explained,  ' '  I  was  hard  pushed  to 
complete  that  polacca  for  Don  Meliton  Isasi.  I  postponed 
selecting  the  balks  until  to-day.  I  was  just  about  to  begin 
when  I  was  arrested." 

"Bribonazo!"  Francia  thundered,  "you  dare  to  tell  me 
that  you  postponed  public  business  for  private  gain.  You 
are  a  useless  citizen  of  this  republic.  You  deserve  to  be 
shot.  But  I  shall  be  merciful.  You  are  given  twenty-four 
hours  and  more  to  leave  the  country,  which  you  disgrace. 
If  you  are  found  after  noon  to-morrow  within  the  bound 
aries  of  Paraguay  you  shall  go  to  the  banquillo.  Depart!" 

Soloaga,  released  by  his  guards,  slunk  away,  the  soldiers 
following  him. 

Francia  sighed. 

"Always  treason  or  incompetence  in  Paraguay,"  he 
groaned,  "or  both  together." 


688  EL   SUPREMO 

Then  he  resumed,  in  his  normal  voice: 

"I  was  about  to  say  that,  as  you  wish  to  marry,  I  had 
best  give  you  an  order  to  the  Bishop  to  perform  the  cere 
mony.  You  can  make  use  of  it  when  you  please.  Without 
it  he  would  boggle  at  marrying  two  heretics.'* 

He  turned  to  his  table,  but  gazed  past  it  across  the  patio 
with  so  sudden  a  change  of  countenance  that  Hawthorne 
whirled  about  and  cast  a  quick  glance  towards  the  en 
trance.  El  Zapo  was  halfway  across  the  court,  waddling 
towards  them. 

"Curro!"  the  Dictator  shouted,  peremptorily,  "how  did 
you  come  here?" 

' '  S-S-S-Senor  Excelentisimo, "  the  fat  man  stammered, 
"I  w-w-walked." 

"I  mean,"  Francia  snapped,  " which  way  did  you 
come?" 

"S-S-S-Senor  Excelentisimo,"  El  Zapo  stuttered,  "I 
c-c-c-came  past  the  Encarnacion  church,  around  b-b-behind 
the  c-c-convent  of  M-M-Mercy  and  then  d-d-down  C-C-Calle 
C-C-Concepcion. '  * 

"Why  did  you  go  all  that  distance  out  of  your  way?" 
came  the  question. 

"I  w-w-wanted  to  see  P-P-Pai  M-M-Mbatu,"  the  ship- 
wright  explained. 

1 '  Nhm ! ' '  Francia  grunted.  ' '  When  did  you  leave  home  ? ' ' 

"B-B-Before  sunup,"  the  fat  man  replied. 

Francia  stared  at  him  hard. 

"I  believe  you  are  telling  the  truth,"  he  said.  "Why 
did  you  come  here,  Pancho?" 

"To  g-g-give  m-m-myself  up,"  El  Zapo  answered. 

"Why?"  the  Dictator  queried. 

"Senor  Excelentisimo,"  Eiquelme  made  answer  without 
any  hesitation  or  catch  in  his  voice,  "I  have  committed 
treason  by  harbouring  one  of  your  Excellency's  enemies. 
I  did  not  know  it  until  yesterday.  Therefore,  I  have  come 
to  give  myself  up." 

"Why  did  you  not  come  yesterday?"  Francia  enquired. 

"I  was  putting  my  affairs  in  order,"  El  Zapo  replied, 
his  voice  even  and  smooth.  ' '  I  am  now  ready  to  be  shot. ' ' 

"What  enemy  of  mine  did  you  harbour?"  the  Dictator 
demanded. 

"S-S-Senor  Excelentisimo,"  the  fat  man  answered,  "if 


CECILY  689 

/our  Excellency  will  read  this  paper,  your  Excellency  will 

understand." 

Francia  took  the  paper,  held  it  unopened  and  asked : 
' '  Then  you  did  not  know  I  had  ordered  you  arrested  this 

morning?" 

1  'No,  Excellency,"  El  Zapo  replied. 

"Francisco,"  the  Dictator  said,  "I  believe  you." 

He  read  the  paper,  seemed  to  read  it  twice,  and  handed 

it  to  Hawthorne,  who  read : 

"When  you  read  this  I  shall  be  dead.  For  either  I  shall 
to-night  kill  the  tyrant  and  myself  afterwards  or  I  shall 
die  in  the  attempt.  I  thank  you  for  your  kindness  and  pro 
tection  and  for  the  shelter  you  gave  my  husband  and  have 
given  me. 

"Your  grateful  friend, 

"CECILIA  RODRIGUEZ  Y  BALCARCE." 

The  Dictator  fixed  El  Zapo  with  an  angry  gaze. 

"And  you  dare  to  tell  me,"  he  said,  "that  until  yes 
terday  you  did  not  know  you  were  harbouring  an  enemy 
of  mine?" 

"Senor  Excelentisimo, "  the  giant  replied,  "it  is  the 
truth.  Don  Domingo  asserted  that  he  had  no  designs 
against  your  Excellency.  Dona  Cecilia  made  the  same  as 
sertions  upon  oath  again  and  again.  Both  claimed  that 
they  were  only  awaiting  a  chance  to  escape  to  Corrientes. 
I  believed  them." 

"Why  did  you  shelter  them  at  first?"  Francia  cross- 
questioned  him.  "You  knew  Don  Domingo  had  escaped 
from  prison  here." 

"Sefior  Excelentisimo,"  El  Zapo  rejoined,  "I  was  a 
broken  and  starving  wretch  at  Buenos  Aires  when  Don 
Preciado  Balcarce  befriended  me  and  gave  me  a  fresh  start 
at  my  trade.  It  was  he  who  set  me  up  in  business  at  Corri 
entes.  I  could  not  fail  his  daughter  or  her  husband.  Be 
sides,  it  was  Don  Domingo  who  advised  me  to  remove  from 
Corrientes  to  Asuncion.  I  owed  much  to  him  also,  per 
sonally." 

The  Dictator's  browbeating  glare  he  met  unflinchingly, 
a  not  undignified  figure  as  he  stood,  twisting  his  greasy 
Barcelona  cap. 


690  EL   SUPREMO 

"I  am  r-r-ready  t-t-to  b-b-be  sh-sh-shot, "  he  stuttered, 
painfully. 

"Seiior  Don  Francisco!'*  Francia  rapped  out,  "you  are 
not  going  to  be  shot.  You  are  a  brave  man,  and  I  do  not 
shoot  brave  men  unless  they  force  me  to  do  so.  You  are 
also  a  good  citizen.  I  never  shoot  good  citizens.  What  is 
more,  you  are  a  good  shipwright,  and,  after  to-morrow,  you 
will  be  not  only  the  best  shipwright  in  Paraguay,  but  the 
only  shipwright  in  Asuncion.  I  cannot  afford  to  shoot  you. 
Go  back  to  your  wife." 

El  Zapo  bowed  awkwardly. 

"Muchas  gracias,  Senor  Excelentisimo ! "  was  all  he  said. 
He  waddled  off. 

Francia  rooted  among  his  papers  on  his  table. 

"I  must  not  forget  that  order  to  the  Bishop,"  he  said. 

Before  he  had  found  a  pen  to  suit  him  Bopi  was  beside 
him. 

"Who?"  he  queried.    "Well,  let  him  come  in." 

Pai  Mbatu  appeared  and  approached. 

"Well,"  Francia  snapped. 

"Excellency,"  Pai  Mbatu  said,  "I  have  come  to  give 
myself  up." 

"Indeed!"  Francia  cried.  "The  disease  is  then  epi 
demic.  And  why  do  you  wish  to  give  yourself  up  ? " 

"For  treason,"  Pai  Mbatu  explained.  "I  have  been  har 
bouring,  from  time  to  time,  two  of  your  Excellency's  en 
emies.  ' ' 

"Domingo  and  his  wife?"  the  Dictator  queried. 

Pai  Mbatu  nodded. 

The  Dictator  glared  at  him. 

"You  harboured  her,  that  close  to  me?" 

Pai  Mbatu  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"She  could  not  guess  you  were  ever  that  close  to  my 
hut,"  he  said,  "any  more  than  you  could  guess  where 
she  was.  And  I  did  not  know  of  her  designs  on  you.  I 
thought  I  was  doing  an  act  of  harmless  charity.  Since  I 
am  aware  of  her  deception  and  my  guilt  I  have  come  to  be 
shot." 

"Pooh!"  Francia  snorted.  "I  wouldn't  waste  three 
bullets  on  you.  You  are  not  such  a  bad  sort.  Would  you 
do  it  again?" 

"Not  if  I  knew  I  was  giving  shelter  to  an  assassin/' 


CECILY  691 

Pai  Mbatu  said.    "But  I  should  shelter  any  refugee  other- 


/'Be  off!"  the  Dictator  grunted.     "Or,  stay!     Have  a 
cigar  before  you  go." 

He  called  Bopi,  who  brought  a  small  pet  aeon  and  lifted 
the  lid. 

"Take  a  handful,"  Francia  said.  "Fill  your  pockets. 
Light  one  before  you  go." 

Pai  Mbatu  helped  himself  to  cigars,  lit  one  at  the  candle 
on  the  table,  puffed  at  it,  and  then  stood,  the  cigar  be 
tween  the  two  outer  fingers  of  his  left  hand,  bowing  and 
pouring  out  thanks. 

^  As  Francia  was  bidding  him  cease  talking  and  go,  the 
cigar  exploded. 

Pai  Mbatu,  yelling  with  pain  and  fright,  clutching  his 
bleeding  hand  in  the  other,  first  staggered  about  the  patio 
and  then  rolled  on  the  pavement,  bellowing  with  terror 
and  agony. 

"Run  for  Dr.  Parlett,"  Francia  commanded  Bopi. 

"He's  waiting  at  the  entrance  now,"  the  mulatto  said, 
and  returned  in  a  moment  with  the  little  surgeon,  who 
calmed  Pai  Mbatu,  declared  the  injury  slight,  and  bandaged 
the  mangled  hand,  saying : 

"With  a  good  soaking  in  Guarani  eye-lotion  that  hand 
will  heal  easily.  There  are  no  bones  broken  and  the  flesh 
is  not  much  torn.  Cheer  up.  You'll  be  whole  in  two 
weeks." 

After  Parlett  had  transacted  his  brief  business  and  gone 
ou^t  Francia  turned  gloomily  to  Hawthorne  and  remarked : 

"That  petacon  of  cigars  will  never  be  traced.  I'll  never 
find  out  who  put  the  powder  in  that  cigar.  Charming  life, 
this  life  of  mine.  To  the  long  list  of  depressing  precautions 
I  must  take  daily  I  must  now  add  the  necessity  of  unrolling 
and  examining  before  I  light  it  every  cigar  I  mean  to 
smoke. 

"All  the  same,"  he  continued,  "I  must  go  on  with  my 
routine  duties  and  try  to  keep  cheerful.  At  the  moment  I 
must  not  forget  that  order  to  the  Bishop." 


692  EL   SUPREMO 


(3) 

That  very  noon  a  brig  from  Buenos  Aires  reached  Asun 
cion  with  several  packets  for  Hawthorne.  There  was  a 
letter  from  Mr.  John  Postlethwaite,  of  Corrientes,  full 
especially  of  the  news  of  the  successive  defeats  of  Artigas 
by  the  Brazilians  and  of  their  capture  of  Montevideo; 
another  from  Dona  Juanita  and  Don  Manuel  Bianquet  at 
Buenos  Aires,  full  of  the  same  news  but  more  of  their  com 
fort,  prosperity,  happiness  and  gratitude.  There  was  one 
from  Messrs.  Valentine  and  Little,  of  Philadelphia,  inform 
ing  Hawthorne  that  he  was  heir  to  the  property  of  the  late 
Mr.  Jabez  Darlington,  of  that  city.  The  sum  which  they 
named  as  their  least  valuation  of  the  estate  completely 
staggered  Hawthorne,  who  had  been  master  of  a  comforta 
ble  income  since  his  majority,  but  who  had  never  expected 
to  find  himself  opulent. 

The  news  of  his  legacy  was  confirmed  by  Don  Sigismundo 
Mendez,  brother  of  Don  Avelino,  who  arrived  on  the  brig, 
bringing  for  Hawthorne  from  Messrs.  Valentine  and  Little, 
through  Consul  Ponsonby  Staples,  of  Buenos  Aires,  a  fat 
sack  of  gold  pieces,  a  very  substantial  remittance. 

Cecily,  when  told  of  this  amazing  windfall,  exclaimed: 

"Then  we  can  leave  Paraguay  as  soon  as  we  are  mar 
ried.  That  is  precisely  what  I  want/' 

Hawthorne  said  nothing,  but  she  saw  his  face  alter,  and 
asked : 

"Did  you  mean  to  remain  here?" 

"I  did,"  he  confessed.  "Have  you  forgotten  my  plans 
for  a  world-wide  market  for  yerba  and  a  Paraguayan 
monopoly  ? ' ' 

"No,"  she  admitted,  "but  Uncle  Jabez  has  put  you  be 
yond  any  real  need  for  such  efforts,  even  if  they  are  to  lead 
to  such  success.  You  don't  hate  Paraguay  as  I  do.  You 
spent  a  great  part  of  your  time  in  the  prison,  "Will,  but  you 
have  never  'been  in  prison.'  " 

Her  eyes  filled  with  tears. 

"Will,"  she  added,  "I  love  you  dearly,  and  will  do 
anything  you  really  want,  but  I  do  not  believe  I  could  ever 
be  happy  in  Asuncion  or  feel  reconciled  to  staying  in 
dreadful  country. ' ' 


CECILY  693 

Hawthorne  was  prompt  to  make  up  his  mind  and  quick 
to  act.  He  lost  no  time  in  going  to  the  Palacio. 

Francia  heard  him  out  with  knitted  brows. 

"I  regret  our  dreams  of  world-monopoly  of  yerba,"  he 
said,  ' '  but  I  shall  regret  you  more.  I  have  no  right  to  let 
you  go.  It  is  my  duty  to  Paraguay  to  keep  you  here.  At 
the  least  I  should  exact  of  you  a  park  of  artillery  and  a 
mountain  of  good  powder  as  the  price  of  your  freedom. 
But,  as  I  have  reiterated,  I  cannot  forget  that  but  for  you 
I  should  not  be  alive  to  give  any  orders  about  anything. 
That  consideration  overbalances  in  my  eyes  my  duty  to  my 
people.  But  I  know  I  shall  grind  my  teeth  many  a  time 
when  I  think  of  all  I  let  go  when  I  signed  your  passports. 
You  shall  have  them,  of  course.  As  to  the  gold,  I  know  I 
should  keep  that.  But  while  I  am  most  sedulous  to  prevent 
the  export  of  even  one  ounce  of  our  scanty  silver,  while 
gold  is  yet  scantier,  I  see  no  justice  in  retaining  what  came 
to-day  only.  You  shall  have  authority  to  take  your  gold 
with  you.  Make  your  arrangements  and  come  for  your 
passports  when  you  please." 

The  next  morning  Cecily  and  Hawthorne  were  married 
at  the  Encarnacion  church,  Don  Vicente  himself  giving  the 
bride  away.  Bishop  de  Panes  performed  the  ceremony, 
addressing  the  two  benignantly : 

''Dear  children,  I  am  told,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly, 
that  you  are  both  heretics,  strangers  to  the  blessed  peace 
which  belongs  only  to  the  happy  members  of  our  Mother 
Church.  Be  it  known  to  you  that  at  Asuncion  the  Grace 
of  God  is  manifested  in  a  very  special  manner.  It  may  be 
that  by  the  mysterious  working  of  His  Divine  Providence 
He  may  have  already  put  it  into  your  hearts  to  avail  your 
selves  of  His  infinite  mercy,  to  forsake  all  errors,  to  ask  for 
admittance  to  the  fold  of  His  shepherd  upon  earth.  I 
pause  in  order  that  you  may  have  opportunity  to  express 
your  desires. 

"But  if  you  have  no  such  inclination,  be  sure  that  even 
so,  Our  Heavenly  Father  has  you  in  His  keeping,  and  that, 
in  some  fashion  incomprehensible  to  us,  your  state  of  mind 
will  ultimately  work  for  the  greater  glory  of  God." 

After  the  wedding,  to  their  amazement,  the  pair  were  con 
voyed  to  Casa  Velarde,  which  they  found  made  ready  for 
them,  and  where  they  read  letters  from  Don  Toribio,  Car- 


694  EL    SUPREMO 

lota  and  Ventura,  putting  the  house  and  servants  at  their 
disposal  indefinitely,  and  begging  their  acceptance  of  ' '  this 
trifle."  Cecily  was  visibly  touched,  but  declared  that  not 
even  this  could  reconcile  her  to  remaining  in  Paraguay  a 
day  longer  than  was  absolutely  necessary. 

Hawthorne  thereupon  set  himself  to  arrange  for  their 
departure,  and  to  consider  the  best  method  of  descending 
the  river  to  Buenos  Aires. 

When  his  arrangements  were  completed  Hawthorne  paid 
a  farewell  visit  to  the  Dictator.  He  signed  all  the  neces 
sary  papers  and  passed  them  over. 

"I  trust,"  he  said,  "I  shall  not  have  too  bitter  cause  to 
regret  my  folly  in  letting  you  go  or  to  miss  the  cannon  you 
might  have  cast  for  me  or  the  powder  you  might  have  man 
ufactured  or  helped  towards  manufacturing.  With  you, 
in  two  years  more,  iron-founding  in  Paraguay  would  be  on 
a  secure  footing.  Without  you,  I  fear  your  pupils  may  lose 
their  cunning  or  fail  to  transmit  it  to  others.  The  iron 
industry  may  relapse  into  its  former  insignificance.  Even 
yet,  for  the  sake  of  my  Guaranies,  I  should  harden  my  heart 
and  detain  you.  I  shall  not.  And  I  confess  I  am  selfishly 
most  likely  to  regret  our  evenings  and  chess-games.  I 
shall  bear  my  loneliness  as  best  I  can,  but  no  resolution  can 
avail  me.  I  shall  deteriorate.  I  shall  wear  my  uniform 
less  and  less  and  my  dressing-gown  more  and  more.  I 
shall  grow  harsher  and  more  suspicious,  more  arbitrary, 
more  capricious,  less  just.  That  is  my  fate.  I  shall  miss 
you. 

'  *  But  one  thing  I  want  to  say.  While  Beltran's  perfidy 
has  been  my  greatest  grief,  the  worst  scare  I  ever  had  was 
just  before  you  stabbed  Senora  Rodriguez.  I  know  you 
had  your  hand  gripped  on  that  poniard  hilt  to  murder  me. 
I  knew  it.  Only  her  inrush  saved  me.  I  could  not  have 
defended  myself  against  your  quickness  and  strength  and 
skill.  Yet  I  condone  the  intention  and  call  you  my  friend. 
You  saved  me  five  times  at  least  from  assassination;  the 
last  time  from  her  and  yourself.  I  am  grateful,  and  we 
part  friends,  Guillermo." 

"We  do,  Gaspar,"  said  Hawthorne. 

He  stood  up  and  bowed. 

"Vaya  Usted  con  Di^s,"  spoke  the  Dictator. 

"Quede  Usted  con  Dios,"  Hawthorne  echoed. 


CECILY  695 

But,  after  the  formal  interchange  of  the  conventional 
' '  Go  with  God ' '  and  *  *  Remain  with  God, ' '  Francia  put  out 
his  hand  and,  as  they  clasped,  he  said,  in  English: 

"Good-bye,  William." 

"Good-bye,  Gaspar,"  said  Hawthorne. 


(4) 

Before  the  invention  of  double  topsails  even  small  brigs 
required  very  large  crews  to  handle  their  unwieldy  ex 
panses  of  canvas.  Sailing  down  the  long,  winding  reaches 
of  the  Rio  Paraguay  and  Rio  Parana  was,  on  the  whole, 
quicker  than  floating  down  with  the  current,  because  a 
brig  or  brigantine  could  furl  all  sail  and  float  against  the 
wind  with  a  favourable  current,  set  all  sail  and  outstrip 
the  current  when  the  wind  served.  But  it  was  not  much 
quicker;  for  a  raft  would  float  faster  with  the  current 
against  the  wind  than  a  brig  with  bare  poles,  since  even 
bare  poles  offered  some  hold  to  the  air;  and  a  raft  would 
float  nearly  as  fast  as  a  brig  could  sail. 

As  a  piragua,  having  no  sails,  required  a  much  smaller 
crew  than  any  sailing  vessel,  and  as,  therefore,  she  would 
have  more  room  for  passengers,  Hawthorne  preferred  a 
piragua.  The  slight  difference  in  time  would  be  of  little 
importance  to  him  and  Cecily,  happy  in  each  other's  so 
ciety,  and  the  down-river  journey  held  out  promises  of 
many  delights,  chiefly  from  the  scenery  of  the  islands. 
These  were,  as  Hawthorne  recalled  from  his  tedious  voyage 
upstream,  all  beautiful,  no  two  alike  and  so  numerous  that 
there  was  hardly  one  single  point  between  Corrientes  and 
Buenos  Aires  where  the  river  spread  unbroken  from  the 
eastern  to  the  western  bank.  If  in  view  of  the  Gran  Chaco, 
one  was  cut  off  from  even  a  glimpse  of  the  Entre  Rios  bank, 
and  vice  versa.  The  islands  were  of  every  form  and  size, 
and  lay  at  every  possible  angle,  lying  abreast  of  each  other ; 
some  long,  narrow  strips,  running  parallel  with  several 
smaller ;  some  with  their  ends  overlapping  others ;  the  river 
among  them  running  not  merely  in  two  channels  but  often 
four  or  five,  through  an  endless  tangle  of  devious  cross- 
channels,  between  mingled  isles  and  islets. 

Also  it  was  not  in  Hawthorne's  nature  to  miss  an  op- 


696  EL    SUPREMO 

portunity  for  procuring  profit.  His  thrifty  New  Eng 
land  blood  mastered  him,  no  matter  how  much  spare  cash 
he  had  in  hand,  or  how  ample  an  income  he  had  in 
prospect. 

Therefore,  he  had  chosen  to  leave  Asuncion  in  a  piragua, 
a  characteristically  Paraguayan  form  of  vessel,  used  only 
for  navigation  with  the  current.  For  a  voyage  "aguas 
aba  jo,"  or  downstream,  nothing  could  be  more  dependable 
or  convenient. 

A  piragua  was  a  kind  of  scow,  a  rectangular  box,  with  a 
flat  bottom  and  with  sides  sloping  outward  so  that  the  rec 
tangle  formed  by  their  upper  edges  was  about  twice  the  size 
of  the  bottom  from  which  they  rose.  All  round  this  upper 
margin  was  constructed  a  sort  of  gangway  for  the  steers 
men,  rowers,  leadsmen,  lookouts  and  working  crew  gen 
erally.  This  flat  overhang,  extending  over  the  water,  catch 
ing  and  repulsing  the  wash  of  any  large  wave,  made  it  pos 
sible  to  load  a  piragua  very  deep  without  any  danger  of 
shipping  water  inboard;  so  that  a  loaded  piragua  was  ex 
tremely  safe  and  steady. 

It  was  customary  to  fill  the  hull  with  cargo  to  the  level 
of  its  top,  to  lay  over  the  contents  a  flooring  of  planks  and 
above  this  flooring  to  construct  a  deckhouse,  called  a 
"troxa"  or  trough.  This  was  built  by  setting  up,  from 
the  gunwales  of  the  hull,  stout  posts  about  nine  feet  high, 
the  tops  of  which  were  connected  by  light  beams,  and  the 
resulting  framework  was  completed  with  wicker-work  sides 
of  strong  standing  bamboo-canes  interlaced  and  held  in 
place  by  hide  ropes  and  thongs  stretched  from  the  posts; 
and  with  a  roof  of  similar  canes  laid  across  covered  with 
a  water-proof  top  of  tightly  sewn  hides ;  awning,  casing  and 
upper-deck  all  in  one,  sloping  every  way  enough  to  throw 
off  the  rain,  flat  enough  to  sit  on  or  walk  on,  and  with  a 
low  hide-netting  on  all  sides  for  a  safety  railing. 

It  was  usual  to  cram  the  deck-house  nearly  full  with 
almost  half  of  the  cargo.  Hawthorne,  buying  a  large 
piragua,  and  lading  sixteen  hundred  serons  of  yerba  into 
its  hold,  merely  strengthened  his  deck  house  with  a  bare 
hundred  serons  ranked  up  and  roped  tight  at  each  corner. 
The  rest  of  the  space  he  had  partitioned  off  into  a  cabin  for 
himself  and  Cecily,  a  cooking  galley,  cubby-hole  hutches 
for  Cecily's  maid  and  for  Tolomeo,  unusually  generous 


CECILY  697 

quarters  for  the  crew,  and  an  open  space  for  air  and  shelter 
during  rains. 

To  see  them  off  nearly  all  the  aristocracy  of  Asuncion 
assembled  at  the  water-front  and  formed  almost  a  crowd  of 
gaily-bedizened  gentry.  The  mass  of  his  fellow-conspira 
tors  were  still  a  trifle  shamefaced  in  Hawthorne 's  presence 
and  stood  in  clusters  in  the  rear  of  the  gathering.  "Well 
towards  the  front  were  all  the  members  of  the  Mayorga 
household,  the  Recaldes,  the  Jovellanos  clan,  Don  Avelino 
Mendez  and  his  brother  Don  Sigismundo,  Don  Marcos 
Barbeito,  and  Don  Cristobal  de  Maria,  still  pathetically 
grateful  to  Hawthorne.  All  four  Priors  were  present,  and 
also  Fray  Damaso  Montiel.  "With  Don  Vicente  were  grouped 
Parlett,  Dr.  Bargas,  the  ex-Intendente,  and  General  Ca 
banas. 

Don  Atanacio,  looking  straight  into  Hawthorne's  eyes, 
expressed  his  regrets  at  his  departure,  and  said  with  Cas- 
tilian  floridity : 

* '  Senor  Don  Guillermo,  I  have  met  in  my  life  no  braver 
man  than  yourself,  none  more  upright.  Had  you  found 
us  as  you  imagined  us,  the  upshot  of  your  errand  here 
would  have  been  as  you  purposed." 

Don  Bernardo  took  Hawthorne's  hand  in  both  of 
his: 

"If  any  one  of  our  boys  had  survived,"  he  said,  "if  my 
dear  wife  had  lived  to  see  him  at  your  age,  we  could  have 
wished  our  son  such  a  man  as  you." 

Dr.  Bargas  wrung  Hawthorne's  hand  again  and  again. 

1 '  Paraguay  loses  much  in  your  departure, ' '  he  perorated. 
t '  If  the  Marquess  de  Torretagle  de  Lima  himself  were  here 
and  leaving,  we  could  not  mourn  his  departure  more  than 
yours. ' ' 

Parlett,  his  eyes  watering,  slapped  Hawthorne  on  the 
shoulder : 

"My  boy,"  he  said,  "I  envy  you.  I  hate  this  country 
and  I  hate  the  thought  of  dying  here.  England  for  me. 
But  only  a  miracle  could  ever  convey  me  home  to  England. 
If  old  Sour-Face  would  let  me  go,  if  I  had  your  bag  of 
doubloons,  I'd  likely  gamble  the  gold-pieces  and  get  so 
dead  drunk  I'd  never  wake  up  till  the  vessel  was  leagues 
down  the  river.  I'm  an  old  sot  and  an  old  fool.  You're 
young  and  you're  lucky.  I  envy  you." 


698  EL    SUPREMO 

Conspicuous  in  all  directions  were  Don  Gumesindo  super 
intending  everything,  and  Don  Gregorio,  beaming  on 
everybody.  He  had  adopted  Cecily  as  a  sort  of  honorary 
goddaughter,  and  treated  as  if  they  were  his  own  children 
both  her  and  Hawthorne,  who  had  found  it  impossible  to 
avoid  a  complete  reconciliation  with  him.  In  his  dove-drab 
coat  he  pervaded  the  water-front,  the  gang-plank  and  the 
piragua.  Standing  on  its  deck,  at  the  last  moment,  he 
said :  * '  My  dear  children,  I  cannot  realise  that  I  am  not  to 
accompany  you,  to  voyage  with  you  down  the  Parana. ' ' 

"That,"  spake  Don  Gumesindo,  "is  a  coincidence,  I 
may  say —  a —  a —  a;  in  short,  a  coincidence.  Yes,  a  coin 
cidence.  Your  prescience,  Don  Gregorio,  your  prevision, 
your  presage,  your  prognostication,  your  intuition  is  re 
markable,  extraordinary,  amazing.  In  short,  this  is  a  coin 
cidence.  You  are  to  sail  down  the  Rio  Paraguay,  at  least, 
on  this  very  piragua.  Such  is  El  Supremo's  will.  I  have 
here  a  paper,  a  document,  if  you  comprehend  me,  an  order, 
in  short,  a  decree,  by  which  you  are  commanded  to  leave 
the  boundaries  of  the  republic  and  return  no  more,  that  is, 
to  say,  you  are  exiled,  in  short  banished.  By  El  Supremo 's 
forethought,  your  effects  are  already  on  the  piragua  upon 
which  you  are  to  depart." 

He  bowed  elaborately,  and  in  so  doing  stepped  off  the 
gang-plank  and  with  a  mighty  splash  vanished  into  the 
water. 

Instantly,  before  any  one  could  move,  another  splash 
sounded,  and  Hawthorne,  Cecily,  Don  Gregorio  and  the 
rest,  peering  over  the  side  or  the  bank,  saw  Hero  also  in 
the  water,  saw  Don  Gumesindo 's  head  come  to  the  surface, 
saw  Hero  seize  the  broad  collar  of  his  coat  and,  as  they 
looked,  saw  Tolomeo  dive  overboard. 

The  dog  held  up  the  fat  Don  just  long  enough  to  enable 
Tolomeo  to  reach  him.  Tolomeo  was  able  to  sustain  him 
and  also  to  breast  the  strong  current.  The  vaqueano  of  the 
piragua  threw  a  rope  craftily,  and  dog,  servant  and  min 
ister  were  soon  hauled  out. 

Don  Gumesindo  regarded  his  draggled  finery  ruefully, 
streaming  water  from  every  thread  of  his  velvets  and  satins. 

"I  am  damp,"  he  remarked.     "That  is  to  say,  I  am 


CECILY  699 

soaking ;  in  fact,  dripping ;  in  other  words,  I  am  moist,  to 
put  it  plainly,  saturated ;  in  short,  wet. ' ' 

His  accident  and  rescue  somewhat  mitigated  the  emo 
tions  aroused  by  Don  Gregorio's  dismay  and  grief.  The 
vaqueano  was  impatient,  Cecily  eager  to  be  gone.  The 
crowd  of  well-wishers  completed  their  several  and  individ 
ual  farewells,  the  ropes  that  held  the  gang-plank  were  be 
ing  loosened,  when  a  shout  was  heard  and  a  rider  gal 
loped  through  the  hastily-opening  crowd.  Hawthorne  saw 
under  his  broad-brimmed  hat  a  red  face  barred  by  two 
diagonal  stripes  of  whitish-blue,  and  recognised  Don  Car- 
lampio  Borda,  the  overseer  of  Atira.  He  brought  letters 
from  Don  Toribio,  Carlota,  Dona  Juana,  Beltran  and  Ven 
tura.  The  letters  delivered,  he  wheeled  his  horse  and 
spurred  away. 

At  once  the  crew  cast  off  the  gang-plank  and  pushed  the 
piragua  from  the  shore ;  the  vaqueano  disposed  his  men  and 
gave  his  orders;  out  into  the  current  she  swung. 

Don  Gregorio,  his  eyes  filled  with  tears,  ascended  the 
hide  roof  of  the  troxa,  and  from  there  waved  his  perfumed 
white  silk  handkerchief  in  farewell  to  his  comadres  and 
compadres. 

When  Hawthorne  and  Cecily  came  up  the  ladder  he 
walked  forward  and  left  them  in  possession  of  the  red  and 
white  striped  awning  which  Hawthorne  had  had  rigged  up 
at  the  stern.  Under  it  they  seated  themselves  on  two  light 
chairs  Don  Vicente  had  provided. 

The  vaqueano  ran  from  side  to  side,  always  on  the  outlook 
for  cross-currents,  always  yelling  orders  to  his  men.  A 
Payagua  with  a  twenty-foot  bamboo  stood  at  each  forward 
corner  of  the  craft,  continually  taking  soundings,  four 
polers  walked  the  forward  gangway  to  stave  off  any  danger 
of  going  aground  on  a  sand-bar,  six  rowers  on  either  side- 
gangway  worked  their  sweeps  to  assist  the  current,  four 
steersmen  with  long,  broad-bladed  oars  worked  on  the  after 
gangway. 

Thus  borne,  the  two,  hand  in  hand,  watched  the  water 
front  recede,  saw  the  city  grow  smaller  and  far  off,  beheld 
the  Cathedral  tower  become  a  mere  tiny  blot  above  the 
horizon,  saw  the  palm-tasselled  summit  of  Cerro  de  Ta~ 


700  EL    SUPREMO 

cumbu  and  the  conical  top  of  Cerro  de  Lambare  against 
the  sky  grow  vague  and  indistinct,  and  knew  that  their 
eyes  had  rested  for  the  last  time  on  Asuncion.  Ten  days 
later,  as  they  swept  slowly  through  the  long,  curving 
reaches  of  Tres  Bocas,  they  caught  their  last  glimpse  of 
the  shores  of  Paraguay. 


THE  END 


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